The Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN) has petitioned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over excessive charges being deducted from bank customers’ accounts in the country and urged the apex bank to urgently intervene in order to protect the customers from illegal fees and charges.
The president of BCAN, Dr. Uju Ogubunka, gave this hint on Thursday at the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Conference with the theme ‘Power of AI: Enhancing Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction for Better Financial Services Experience’ organised by SuperNews.
The renowned banking expert maintained based on the association’s findings on the fleecing of bank customers through excess charges, the association had written to the CBN to find a permanent solution to the problem, cautioning that if they don’t, perhaps bank customers may protest against the illegal acts of the banks
Ogubunka, a former Director-General of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), further rued the sordid experiences of bank customers in the banking halls and points of interactions with the lenders, noting that the evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI) system will help in resolving some of the pains customers are going through in the process of doing transactions in their banks
The BCAN President clarified: “The truth is that when you talk of customer satisfaction in today’s Nigerian banking system, it doesn’t exist. That’s the truth. I’ve given you samples of where you can go, and you will find petitions, live petitions, and more going on at Bankers’ House, CBN, NDIC, mediation centres, and the law courts, and you will find all these things there. If people were really satisfied, they wouldn’t be complaining; they wouldn’t be petitioning. So, we cannot really say that AI has come to dwell with us.
“If AI has come to dwell with us, most of the issues being complained about would be taken care of by AI. That’s the truth”, Ogubunka added.
In his keynote address at the event, another finance expert, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, identified some of the ways that AI can benefit the financial sector.
For instance, on consumer credit, he explained: “Today, consumer credit is everywhere in this country because the machines are able to determine your income level and what you spend on. If you know the information available to the telco companies, they know who you make payment to and where you went to smoke.
“Once you make a payment, they track it, so they know your consumption pattern; they know how much comes to your account, so they can actually say, I can give Johnson a N50,000 loan. The loan is automated; you apply and get it in minutes”, Chukwu added
According to him, the adoption of AI in financial transactions has led to enhanced personalization such that one million customers are treated as an individual and not a part of the crowd.
He clarified: “The system knows you as an individual, knows your face, knows your eyes, knows your fingerprint, and knows where you’re coming from. In that case, it also narrows your demand to what fits your purpose. Because the machine has so much data, when you make your complaint, it will be able to know what is best to do to address your complaint.
“There are seven C’s to implementing AI. Capacity: you must have the capacity, you must have the capability, you must collaborate, you must have creativity, and you must have cognition, continuity, and control.
“On that note, I feel artificial intelligence will define the future of human engagement, interaction, and experience. Companies that fail to adopt AI will not only be uncompetitive but will also become obsolete in the near future”, Chukwu stressed.
