…. Bank operations wobble
…. Communication sector depletes
…. Nigerians cry out
Since Thursday, March 14, 2024, Nigerians have been going through untold hardship accessing their bank accounts as communication nosedived in the finance sector, causing problem in the flow of commercial activities and other engagements.
Banks in Nigeria, it was gathered, have been affected by a damage to submarine cables which has caused internet outages in parts of Africa.
The submarine cable cuts which occurred that Thursday was said to have affected subsea cable providers and disrupted internet traffic in major parts of the continent.
Sequel to this, there has been a remarkable lull in internet bank transactions with telling effects on commerce across Africa and Nigeria in particular.
Many bank customers have expressed frustrations in accessing their accounts through internet banking with very costly effect on their businesses.
The situation was made worse as only a few banks notified their customers of the situation so that the customer could sort for possible alternative measure to doing business with little impact on flow of business.
Reports say the Thursday damage affected major undersea cables near Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire, affecting submarine communications cables, including West Africa Cable System (WACS), the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE), MainOne, and SAT3.
The issue is said to be causing downtime across West and South African countries, affecting telecommunications network as well as banks in Nigeria.
Sterling Bank, had in a notice to customers on Thursday, apologised to customers over the effect of the network disruption affecting transactions.
The Bank wrote: “We are aware that you may be experiencing difficulties trying to transfer funds, reach our customer care team, or transact via USSD and genuinely apologize for the effect of this on your day.
“We are fully committed to providing the best service and are working tirelessly to resolve this issue. You have our promise to notify you as soon as it has been fixed,”.
Rasheed Bolarinwa, President, Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), also said that the situation impacted connectivity across many banks in Nigeria.
He however said that substantial progress is being recorded in a gradual resolution of the glitch.
