One of the challenges confronting the cashless policy of the Federal Government is the dearth of software engineers at the money deposit institutions to fix complaints of poor network trailing the use of digital transactions, Investors King has learnt.
Many Nigerians have complained bitterly about their difficulty in making use of alternate channels including mobile apps and internet transfers following the cash crunch ravaging the country.
They said most of the bank apps were malfunctioning and that payments and reception of transfer alerts are being delayed and further frustrating them.
For some of them, the nation appeared not ready for the cashless policy it has introduced through the redesigning of larger denominations of the naira currency and the non-circulation of the same.
Explaining the reason behind the hiccups, commercial banks in Nigeria said they lost most of their software engineers to the mass exodus of young Nigerians abroad in search of a better life, adding that they have been struggling to replace these tech gurus to attend to the issues of the poor network during transfer among other problems affecting the smooth implementation of digital banking.
The President of the Association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), Rasheed Bolarinwa, while speaking during an interview, assured Nigerians that the challenges would soon be resolved as banks have been working towards recruiting fresh engineers to attend to the problems at the backend of the sites.
While agreeing that the challenges that have been happening with the digital transaction were real and that banks have been seeing difficulties at the backend, Bolarinwa said most of the banks have been losing some of their software engineers to the exit of youths in the country.
He said the Japa syndrome impacted significantly on some of the resolutions that normally happen at the backend, but, noted that resources are being mobilised and talents are being streamlined to ensure that the banks have a minimal obstruction in the technological space.
According to him, “We understand the frustration and everything that has happened but nothing justifies an attack on the banking institutions. If there are those who have left the country (software engineers), the banks have the capacity and muscle to train more people that will come into the industry and fix whatever challenges that we face. Our investments in the alternate channels cannot go to waste. This situation will normalize and Nigeria will take its pride of place in the comity of nations.”
Bolarinwa urged Nigerians to embrace the cashless method by using alternate channels of transactions. He said it was high time Nigerians desist from depending on cash for their daily transactions and that banks have invested heavily to see to the full realisation of the policy.
“We (Nigerians) should stop paying attention to cash. We shouldn’t abuse the naira. We should embrace the cashless policy. We can’t be referencing advanced society and fail to do what the advanced society do. A country that doesn’t manage its monetary system very well won’t work and that’s why CBN is ensuring that everyone embraces cashless policy.
“80 percent of Nigerians have access to one form of alternate channels or the other. We have the USSD, we have the internet banking, we have the mobile banking, you have the POS, where the banks were able to provide billions of jobs for the unemployed and that’s one of the values that banks brought into the system, then we have the digital banks itself. You have more than eight alternate channels and I believe every Nigerian who had had active service, must have used one or two,” he said.
On how Nigerians who are unable to make successful digital transactions, Bolarinwa explained that, “there are laid down resolution mechanisms; whenever you buy things and you are unable to get value or maybe the merchant didn’t get value, once that happens, just collect your ticket and call the bank. Every bank has 24/7 multilingual call centre where hundreds of Nigerians are employed to work round the clock to restore customer-issues. So, when this happens, all that you need to do is to lodge complaints. You will get your money back, it may be immediate or maybe one week. Once you have incidented it, you will be given a complainant card and that’s what you will be using to reference it once that issue has not been resolved.”
