Financial institutions have been advised to improve their e-banking platforms as many Nigerians use electronic banking channels as a result of severe cash shortages in the economy.
Dr. Patrick Ede, Director of Operations and Head of the ICT Division at PPC, observed that the inadequacy of e-banking channels to withstand the deluge of transactions orchestrated by the surge in the use of such channels for payment is causing many failed and unsuccessful transactions while speaking on the impact of redesigned naira notes on banking infrastructure.
Again he said that the congestion and resulting system downtime are hurting merchants’ commercial activities because transactions have become slow, delayed, and sometimes incomplete. After all, the country’s banks were never prepared for the level of surge they are currently experiencing. ​
The ICT expert urged banks to take steps to ensure that all electronic banking channels operate concurrently, quickly, and efficiently.
“The increasing demand on banks’ digital channels calls for increased investment in reliable banking systems that deliver on transactions quickly,” he added.
“To alleviate the congestion of payment channels, banks should carry out an audit of these channels to identify gaps and loopholes in the system to phase resolution. This first step will ensure that banks raise the standards of customer experiences and keep customers at the center of their business models.”
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Mr. Ede further advised all financial institutions to improve their security protocols to ensure the security of all electronic bank channels, protect customer data, and prevent fraud.
However, financial institutions may also need to expand their existing payment channels to accommodate more transactions. PPC’s expertise in the deployment of high-end ICT and engineering infrastructure, according to Ede, has assisted several organizations in the public and private sectors in developing secure, robust, and scalable systems suitable for a wide range of commercial applications.
Conclusion
Indeed, Nigerians are yet to be in a rush, especially given the recent use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platforms.
USSD banking is an SMS-based mobile banking service in which a USSD shortcode is used to access financial services such as transfers, bill payments, airtime recharges, and so on.
Many bank customers switched to USSD platforms to conduct financial transactions due to their inability to obtain cash over the counter in banking halls, as well as the fact that the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) refused to dispense cash and the Point of Sales (POS) terminals are now a no-go area due to high increase of service charges.
Some USSD transactions that appeared to have been completed on these platforms, which could take up to 30 minutes to deliver, were later discovered to have failed.
Nigerians struggle with these codes *966#, *894#, *737#, #*919#, and *711#. As cash remains scarce, so many failed transactions have been lodged via this medium.
Source: The Guidance
