Bank Customers Seek CBN Intervention on Excess Charges
The Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has revealed that it has written to the Central Bank of Nigeria about the charges being deducted from customers’ accounts.
This was disclosed by the president of BCAN, Uju Ogubunka, on Thursday at the 2025 Artificial Intelligence conference organised by SuperNews under the theme ‘Power of AI: Enhancing Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction for Better Financial Services Experience’.
This disclosure comes amid an increase and a migration to the end-user billing model for unstructured supplementary service data from charges being deducted from bank account balances, a move which BCAN had faulted, describing it as falling outside the scope of bank charges approved by CBN.
Speaking at the event, he said, “On the basis of excess charges, we have written to the Central Bank of Nigeria to find a permanent solution to it, and if they don’t, perhaps bank customers may have to come out to demand it. Let’s pray that they do that.”
Ogubunka also lamented the less-than-desirable experience of bank customers in the country, stressing that AI is in a good position to resolve some of the pain points.
He explained, “The truth is that when you talk of customer satisfaction in today’s Nigerian banking system, it doesn’t exist. That’s the truth. I’ve given you samples of where you can go, and you will find petitions, live petitions, and more going on at Bankers’ House, CBN, NDIC, mediation centres, and the law courts, and you will find all these things there. If people were really satisfied, they wouldn’t be complaining; they wouldn’t be petitioning. So, we cannot really say that AI has come to dwell with us.
“If AI has come to dwell with us, most of the issues being complained about would be taken care of by AI. That’s the truth.”
The keynote speaker at the event, Johnson Chukwu, highlighted some of the ways that AI can benefit the financial sector.
On consumer credit, Chukwu said, “Today, consumer credit is everywhere in this country because the machines are able to determine your income level and what you spend on. If you know the information available to the telco companies, they know who you make payment to and where you went to smoke. Once you make a payment, they track it, so they know your consumption pattern; they know how much comes to your account, so they can actually say, I can give Johnson a N50,000 loan. The loan is automated; you apply and get it in minutes.”
On boosting customer experience, Chukwu said the use of AI has led to “enhanced personalisation. One million customers, and each of them treated as an individual. You’re not a part of the crowd. The system knows you as an individual, knows your face, knows your eyes, knows your fingerprint, and knows where you’re coming from. In that case, it also narrows your demand to what fits your purpose.”
He added that it would also lead to faster complaint resolution, “Because the machine has so much data, when you make your complaint, it will be able to know what is best to do to address your complaint.”
He concluded by saying, “There are seven C’s to implementing AI. Capacity: you must have the capacity, you must have the capability, you must collaborate, you must have creativity, and you must have cognition, continuity, and control.
“On that note, I feel artificial intelligence will define the future of human engagement, interaction, and experience. Companies that fail to adopt AI will not only be uncompetitive but will also become obsolete in the near future.”
