Bank customers groan, as ATM machines pack up

THE laudable benefits of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) technology is gradually giving way, as bank customers are now subjected to untold hardship in their efforts to transact business in a few functioning channels.
Investigations carried out by the Nigerian Tribune in some of the banks showed that in most of the branches where there are at least five ATM points, only two were functioning. It is either they are labelled ‘out of use’ or ‘temporarily out of service’. In some cases, the ATMs are left blank.
This development has actually succeeded in moving the crowd from the banking halls to the premises, where the ATMs are located.
Consequently, the ATM users are made to wait for over an hour on queue before completing transactions, especially during weekends and public holidays, when there is huge traffic. This hardship is further exacerbated by the new policies in place in some banks which placed ceiling on the amount of cash customers can withdraw across the counter.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that various bank managements were becoming deeply worried and agitated over the rate the  ATMs were packing up and this was linked to overuse and lack of regular maintenance, which often resulted in malfunctioning.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reeled out various statistics on the number of  ATMs which had so far been deployed, but have failed to state the numbers of those actually in use.
Only recently, president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a global leader in information technology (IT) solutions providers, Wincor Nixdorf AG, said the number of ATMs deployed to serve customers in the country would grow from its current 11,000 pieces to 70,000 pieces over the next five years.
Meanwhile, the apex bank has said measures were in place to check fraud cases in ATMs and Point of Sales (PoS).
It said the implementation of biometric authentication for ATMs would commence by 2015, stating that the biometric authentication for PoS and ATMs was to address safety of customers’ fund and avoid losses through compromise of  PIN was being considered and it would be implemented by 2015,” he said.
The apex bank has also concluded plans to launch a portal solely dedicated for reports of frauds arising from the use of all the electronic payment channels in the country.
The initiative, which was in furtherance of the apex bank’s drive to ensure safe, reliable and efficient payment system in Nigeria, was also pioneered alongside the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) and the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS).