Consumers complained by far about services they received from banks and the entire financial services sector for most of 2020, according to government data seen by PREMIUM TIMES. Complaints about services in the sector made 33 per cent — a third — of all cases filed by consumers to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission between January and September 2020. The sector was followed by the electricity and power sector which received 21 percent complaints against its services.
Together, the two sectors got more than half of several thousands of complaints filed. The Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, had earlier disclosed that the commission received the highest consumer related complaints from the electricity, banking and telecommunications sectors in 2020. Data sent by the agency to PREMIUM TIMES provide more details about the degree of customer dissatisfaction in the country.
They show that seven per cent of the complaints was about the telecommunications sector, while six per cent was about e-commerce. Aviation followed with five per cent, electronics had four work cent, satellite/ cable services had four work cent and road transport was two per cent. Courier services, land/construction, education, food/beverages, real estate/mortgages all accounted for one percent each. Other sectors accounted for 14 per cent.
Financial Services
Many Nigerian banks are viewed as perennial poor performers with respect to customer satisfaction. Depositors accuse them of illegal deductions and hidden charges, and general operational inefficiency. With the 2020 coronavirus lockdown pushing people online, reports of inaccurate and failed transactions surged. In recent weeks, there have been a few social media campaign for the boycott of some banks. On resolving the complaints, Mr. Irukera said the commission was overwhelmed by the volume of complaints compared to their staff capacity of the agency.
He said the commission was considering expanding its complaints resolution team’s capacity. “Our complaints resolution team is still a very small team of people and they are dealing with thousands of complaints,” he was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria as saying. “We are looking at expanding capacity to have more hands handling the complaints but the real game changer in handling complaints better and faster is for companies to start doing it. “The person who has the least open complaint in our resolution team has about 800 complaints across sectors and that is one person. If you multiply it by 12 to 15 persons, you will imagine the number of complaints,’’ he said.
