GTBank Unable to Explain Disappearance of N1.3m from Customer’s Account

Nigerian in the UK Left Confused as GTBank Can’t Explain Missing N1.3m

On April 24, James Onireke (not real name), a Nigerian based in the United Kingdom, got notified that N1.3 million had been recalled from his Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) account. The money was part of a N28 million sum that his in-laws resident in Dublin sent to him some days earlier for a special project in Nigeria.

Concerned, Onireke sought an explanation from his bank through his account officer, but what he got left him more confused than he already was.

His account officer informed him that the sum was recalled by Providus Bank on the basis that it was erroneously deposited by the sender. But Onireke was certain that the deposit was not a mistake and that his in-laws who sent the money did not pay in error.

“Providus bank wrote a mail to GTB, according to what my account officer told me, that the money was erroneously paid into my account. Meanwhile, the source account is ACE. My in-laws do not use Providus Bank. So, where does Providus come into play?” Onireke asked.

The situation became even knottier for Onireke when his account officer told him that the sum was recalled through Budpay, a digital payment infrastructure. In the attempt to resolve the discrepancy, GTB instructed Onireke to confirm from his in-laws if they indeed made a recall application through Budpay into a Providus Bank account, and he complied.

“I asked GTBank to check my account, and it showed that all the money was paid directly there, not through a proxy of any sort. They instructed me to reach out to my in-laws, who confirmed that they did not issue a recall.”

“‘Can you go through your bank and find out for us?’ I told my in-law. She got an email that the payment had been finalised and that they didn’t have anything to do with BUDPAY and Providus Bank.”

Onireke’s account officer also told him to write GTB’s Platinum Support, a customer service team dedicated to consistent GTB customers with a considerably high annual turnover. Onireke’s emails to Platinum Support did not yield any results. Rather, they gave him the same response he had got from his account officer.

Determined to get to the root of the matter, Onireke demanded for the transaction ID of the recall from GTBank. It was at this point that correspondence from GTBank became unstable.

“After confirming from my in-law that there was no such recall, I requested GTBank to ask Providus Bank for the transaction ID or email of the recall. GTB did not respond,” said Onireke.

“Now, I learned that the bank manager of my branch, Kasham Sahgi, has asked my account manager to stop communicating with me. At some point, he told me to walk to any GTBank branch near me via email, knowing fully well that I am in the United Kindgom. I really need your help with this. I suspect something fishy is going on.”

The Press wrote an email to GTBank on June 10, copying Providus Bank and Budpay. However, none of the financial institutions had responded as of press time.

FIJ