Wilson Adekumola
The House of Representatives has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria, to give directives to all commercial banks in the country to as a matter of urgency overhaul their existing online and electronic banking platforms for efficiency and ease of electronic transactions for the citizens.
This call was made in a motion, titled “Call on the Central Bank of Nigeria, to Direct all Commercial Banks to Overhaul their Online Banking Service Platforms to Ease Electronic Banking Operations”, moved on Thursday’s plenary.
The motion was moved by Sergius Ose Ogun of Edo State, saying the overhaul would effectively address the transaction failures faing Nigerians.
While presenting the motion, Ogun said Section 88 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, empowered the National Assembly to conduct investigations into the activities of any authority executing or administering laws made by the National Assembly, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He said, “In the wake of the recent naira redesign and cash withdrawal limit policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, there has been an increase in the use of online and electronic banking services to carry out monetary transactions across the country.
“The use of online or internet banking services by Nigerians in the past three months or thereabout has been characterized by varying degrees of hitches ranging from unsuccessful electronic bank transfers, point of sale, POS, service failure and a host of others.
“The ineffectiveness or difficulty in using internet banking services across the online banking platforms of most Commercial Banks in Nigeria has brought untold hardship, suffering and difficulties on Nigerians in the past three months.
“If nothing is done by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Commercial Banks to address these difficulties or ineffectiveness, Nigerians will continue to suffer untold hardships and loss of monies to unsuccessful electronic bank transactions.”
Th House, however, while adopting the motion, mandated the Committee on Banking and Currency to ensure compliance with the resolution and report back within four weeks in order to carry out legislative action.
