₦airaland Forum

"It was like a great joke. To God be the glory for the great things He has done in my life and family. I'm privileged to sign out alongside my daughter. We started the journey together five years ago. Today, I feel fulfilled that I sponsored myself at a very old age and my daughter in the prestigious university of Cross River State (Unicross). Today we're signing out. I'm grateful to God Almighty."

A Nigerian journalist and communications expert, Simbo Olorunfemi, has accused Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) of moving more than N126,000 from his account without explanation and delaying resolution efforts for weeks.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Mr Olorunfemi said the issue began on 10 July when he attempted to pay for a flight ticket with his GTBank card. He said the transaction failed on account of “insufficient funds” despite having transferred N300,000 into the account two days earlier.

“I checked my account balance and realised that it had been set back by N127,000, even without any entry in my account to explain this debit,” he wrote.

According to him, later that day two backdated entries appeared in his account, each showing debits of N63,138.86 as purported payments for Facebook Ads. He said repeated clicks on the entries did not generate receipts, describing them as “dead links.”

He said reminders to the bank eventually led to someone sending him a dispute form to fill and submit. Although he initially resisted filling the form for what he called “fictitious transactions,” he later completed it and sent it to his account officer more than two weeks after the incident was first reported.

Mr Olorunfemi said that even after submitting the form, GTBank failed to provide clarity. At some point, he said, the bank credited his account with N61,590 but backdated the entry to July 11. The narration read: “Dispense error reversal EurFacebk.”

“To my mind, the Bank might have assumed the payment of that N61,590 as refund of the N63,138.86 it debited my account. It even charged N50 for EML,” he wrote.

He said GTBank offered no explanation or apology for the two debits of N63,138.86 or the credit of N61,590. “It has not explained to me how N126,000 mysteriously disappeared from my account, and a ‘reversal’ of N61,590 made it in. This is almost 6 weeks after,” he added.

When he followed up with his account officer, Mr Olorunfemi said she told him it would take “a minimum of 45 days” for the bank to investigate the matter. “I don’t know when that countdown began. I suspect that the 45 days might have only started from 2 weeks back when she acknowledged receiving the dispute form,” he said.

“In other words, GTBank assumes it proper to fiddle as it wishes with a customer account, post fictitious transactions, debit the account at its pleasure, and then push the burden onto the customer to dispute this imaginary transaction, following which it then assigns onto itself ‘a minimum of 45 days to investigate it’,” he wrote.

He warned that the bank appeared indifferent to customers’ needs. “The right of the customer to his money does not count. It is of no concern to the Bank that the customer might actually be in dire need of the money. It could even be that the money is needed for urgent medical needs.”

Mr Olorunfemi also alleged that this was not the first time GTBank had posted fictitious transactions on his account. He recalled a previous case in which the bank “went as far as wiping out all what was on my dollar card, moved onto the domiciliary account, and then onto the Naira account, just to effect another imaginary debit.”

He said a fixed deposit once disappeared from its books for months, leading to a court case that dragged on for 10 years before it was disrupted when the Igbosere High Court in Lagos was set ablaze during the EndSARS protests.

“How a Bank thinks it normal that money put in its care, in trust, will simply disappear and the onus will then be that of the customer to dispute imaginary transaction and wait for 45 days for outcome of its ‘investigation’ beats me,” he wrote.

Other customers lament

Many Facebook users responding to Mr Olorunfemi’s post shared their own experiences, alleging unexplained debits, unresolved disputes and a lack of accountability from GTBank.

Chukwuma Okeke said he stopped banking with GTB after repeated issues. “The rogue banking of GTB is that it will debit you for something you didn’t purchase and remove it from your transaction record,” he wrote. He said the bank once charged him N30,000 for a Starlink subscription that cost N36,000. “Opay is now my regular spending account,” he added.

Another user, Abraham Godwin, alleged that customers had long faced unauthorised debits. “Frankly speaking this bank has been in the forefront of this wrong actions. I have heard tales of customers who wake up with strings of Debit messages from the bank with transactions foreign to them,” he wrote.

He said one pastor received debit alerts showing “sporty bets of over 2.4 million Naira.” Mr Godwin said he stopped using GTB despite keeping an old MasterCard, adding: “Since I opened my FCMB bank account I can tell you that I have had ‘over rest of mind’.”

Kunle Ojeleye also said he closed his account with GTB after over two decades. “I drew down my over-20 years account with them, which was my primary account, for almost a similar reason many months ago and started using another bank,” he wrote.

Another commenter, Olumide Olugbemi-Gabriel, accused the bank of malpractice. “I have posted evidence of the shenanigans and outright criminality of GTB,” he wrote.

He said someone once advised him to sue the bank after discovering that an account was opened in his name without his consent. “This is a bank that I dislike with a passion because of constant customer complaints that I usually come across.”

Rashid Ahmed said he was charged twice for a Netflix upgrade even though he did not have a Netflix account. “I went to the bank, but the issue wasn’t resolved,” he wrote.

Frank Ezekiel described the allegations as fraud. “This is a clear case of FRAUD!!! GTBank in simple terms ‘Fraudulently defrauded you’ and it’s common amongst most Nigerian banks and institutions (the telecoms mainly): operating with lawless impunity, which they very often get away with because the average Nigerian gives up fighting against these fraudulent acts,” he said.

Past complaints resurface

The latest outrage is not new. In November 2024, PREMIUM TIMES reported widespread complaints from GTBank customers following the bank’s core system migration.

Among them was Temilade Onilede, who initially lost money after a failed point-of-sale transaction where N3,100 ballooned into a deduction of N5,100. Matters worsened when she discovered that her account balance, which had risen to more than N50,000 after payments from her office and clients, had suddenly crashed to just N1,500.

Her troubles deepened when a friend transferred N171,000 to her account: she received an alert, but the funds vanished soon after without any trace in her banking records.

Later, she was hit by multiple unauthorised debits labelled “web Google Play NG”, even though she never used her card online or received OTPs for such transactions. She spent long hours in the banking hall trying to resolve the issue, only to be told that “fraudulent activity” was linked to her card, an explanation she strongly disputed.

Her colleague, Silas Jonathan, faced a similar ordeal. A N40,000 transfer he made to Ms Onilede was debited twice without crediting her account. He later found his own Naira and foreign currency accounts blocked, with deposits failing to reflect, unexplained withdrawals, and error messages each time he tried GTBank’s *737# service.

While stranded abroad, he was unable to access his savings in dollars and euros, even as colleagues using other banks had no such issues. After repeated visits to GTBank branches, he was advised by staff not to rely on the account for salary payments, an admission that left him frustrated and financially vulnerable.

Despite repeated assurances from GTBank that glitches from the system upgrade would be resolved, both Ms Onilede and Mr Jonathan told this newspaper that as of today, nearly a year later, their missing funds have still not been restored.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Mr Olorunfemi Thursday evening, he told this newspaper that there hasn’t been any resolution yet.

Charles Eremi of GTCO’s Corporate Communication Unit did not answer his calls. WhatsApp messages sent to his phone on Thursday were delivered but had not been replied to as of press time.

Digital lenders in Nigeria are currently worried over recent moves by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to regulate their interest rates.

Following complaints by Nigerians that the interest rates of many digital lenders, popularly known as loan apps, are too high, the Commission, through its Digital, Electronic, Online, or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025, said it will now monitor the rates.

“The Commission shall periodically monitor interest rates for services of consumer lending, and ensure rates are not exploitative and inimical to consumer interest. Such monitoring shall be made in compliance with provisions of Guidelines developed pursuant to Section 163 of the Act,” the FCCPC stated in the regulation recently released to all players.

Factor of risks and cost

This provision in the regulation has, however, not gone down well with the lenders, who insist that interest should be determined by the cost of funds and the level of risk.

Speaking with Nairametrics, the President of the Money Lenders Association (MLA), Mr. Gbemi Adelekan, said this aspect of the regulation may disrupt the flow of the highly risky digital lending market.

“This is a difficult area because for us, the interest rate is determined by the credit risk, market risk, and cost of funds.

“Unless the authorities are planning to give us funds to be able to operate and bring more people into the ecosystem in terms of financial inclusion, I don’t know how this will work,” he said.

Borrowers’ complaints

Long before now, Nigerians patronizing digital lenders have been complaining about their rates. While many still go ahead and take the loans, some end up not repaying, citing the high interest rates.

In one instance, a digital lender offered to lend a customer N2.5 million with the condition that she would repay N268,230 every month for 24 months.

This means she would pay a total of N6,437,520 at the end of the deal—N3,937,520 as interest. This represents about 198% interest per annum.

-Speaking on the high rates charged by digital lenders, Adelekan said they are a reflection of the costs of funds and technology.
-According to him, many of the digital lenders, with the exception of those operating with microfinance bank licences, do not receive deposits like banks. Hence, they have to borrow money from banks to run their businesses.
-He added that loan app companies also face high risks because most of the people they serve are at the bottom of the pyramid, often without steady sources of income.

Lenders back actions against unethical practices

Adelekan, however, commended the FCCPC regulation for prohibiting apps from accessing contact lists, pictures, and transactions of their customers.

According to him, some lenders have been misusing such access to harass customers and engage in other unethical practices.

“It’s a good step in the right direction for the ecosystem,” he said, adding that this would force many lenders to start using the credit bureau.

He also noted that the group supports the regulation that mandates lenders to clearly state the conditions of their loans, including tenor, interest rates, and repayment plans.

Commenting on the regulation, the Founder of Lendsqr, Adedeji Olowe, said the new rules show that the FCCPC is no longer experimenting with digital lending regulation.

“Whether you love it or hate it, digital lending isn’t a side hustle anymore. It’s part of the financial system, and it’s going to be treated that way,” he said.

What you should know

The new regulation builds on the Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending, 2022, which made it mandatory for all digital money lenders in the country to be registered.

Under the guidelines, all loan apps in the country are expected to register with the FCCPC. As of May this year, Nairametrics reported that the number of registered digital lenders had reached 425.

-Despite the registration drive aimed at sanitizing the digital lending space, cases of harassment and defamation of borrowers have remained rampant. Sanctions for such acts include delisting or removal of apps from the Google Play Store.
-However, with the new rule, the FCCPC is going tougher on perpetrators of unethical practices in the digital lending market.

“Any person or undertaking found to be in contravention of the provisions of these Regulations shall be liable to sanctions, which may include fines, suspension of operations, delisting of registration, or revocation of approval,” the regulation states.

Specifically, it adds that an individual guilty of breaching any of its regulations could be fined up to N50 million, while a company could face N100 million or 1% of its previous year’s turnover, whichever is higher.

SmartPolician:
How does Forbes determine these things? I am 100% certain that these people didn't disclose their earnings to anyone because rich people, probably because of safety concerns, don't like discussing their wealth.

Given what the media has made us believe, there are people who are by far richer than these folks who made the list but they are silent kingmakers who don't want the world to know them. We have been told they are the biggest problems in our world

zero8zero:
How long shall you keep wailing?, till 2060? 🤣

zero8zero:
On the frontpage, there's a report on a new Lithium processing plant, is that not an example of FDI?. The same way una bitter..pipu said about Dangote refinery & 2nd Niger bridge as propaganda.

zero8zero:
Because you have refused to see, closed mindedness dey worry una.

adamkkk:
he has no right to do this without the govt approval

SmartPolician:
That shameless thing now has the guts to sue the government because she was released