In the past week, customers of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) have experienced significant frustration and confusion due to a major upgrade in the bank’s technology. The upgrade involved transitioning to a new Finacle Core Banking Application System, which was announced to start on October 11, 2024, and was expected to be completed by October 14.
However, the transition encountered numerous challenges, resulting in widespread issues for customers.
- Many customers reported being unable to transfer funds to other banks or receive money from them during this period.
- Transfers from other banks into GTBank accounts faced delays of several days, leaving numerous customers distressed as their funds became inaccessible.
- Despite the bank’s efforts to apologize and reassure affected clients, complaints continued to pour in.
Discontented customers have taken to social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to voice their frustrations regarding the ongoing issues with GTBank. One user, KingKay, expressed grave concern over the impact of these banking problems on people’s lives, stating, “What @gtbank is doing can lead to loss of lives… People’s livelihoods are being withheld for weeks because they bank with GTB… Hospital bills, salaries, money for feeding… all these are being withheld for weeks because of one very stupid upgrade!!! @cenbank.”Another customer, Okoh Paul Okoh, called for a boycott of GTBank, urging others to consider their peace of mind: “For your peace of mind and safety! Do boycott @gtbank and @cenbank keep ignoring walai you all will never end well! Now they have changed the name narrative.”Mukhtharr shared his own frustrations about a failed transaction, stating, “Something is wrong with GTBank. So I made a transfer to one Emmanuel, it failed but I was debited, I request a reversal and for 11 days no response. Yesterday, I got a reversal in the form of a transfer from a personal account. What’s happening? @gtbank_helprewrute.”
Joseph Akinsanya also reached out for help after being debited twice for unsuccessful transactions, stating, “@gtbank @cenbank I sent 10,000 on two occasions on Saturday, 19th of this month. The transaction was not successful, yet you debited me 20,000. Kindly help me out with this; I have DM’d you already.”Calls for accountability were echoed by Mr. El-Bonga, who directed his frustration at the Central Bank of Nigeria: “Dear @cenbank, what are you doing regarding the egregious incompetence demonstrated by GTBank and the likes of Zenith? Customers deserve to be treated with respect. They deserve to be compensated. There should be punishment for ineptitude.”Another user noted the lack of communication from GTBank: “It’s been FIVE entire days & GTBank still hasn’t addressed/resolved this issue or even bothered to communicate with their customers. This level of negligence is beyond frustrating & completely unacceptable.”Ezra Olubi pointed out the disconnect between the bank’s claims of success regarding their upgrade and the reality faced by customers: “Funny how gtbank’s online victory laps about the ‘successful’ core banking update is very much divorced from the reality of its customers.”While GTBank’s operations are slowly returning to normal, many customers still encounter problems with its digital services, including its mobile app and USSD features.
