Business
New Bank Customers Decry Rigorous Steps
Prospective and intend
ing customers wishing to open bank accounts with Ecobank, Ahoada, branch in the Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State have expressed their anger over the processes entailed in opening and operating such accounts with the bank.
Some of the customers who spoke to The Tide recently at the bank premises say the procedures are not only time consuming but also cumbersome.
The customers who pledged anonymity while speaking to The Tide explained that more than three weeks after opening the accounts, they were yet to be credited.
According to the, it takes a whole week to process their data, after which they are asked to wait for an alert to confirm that their accounts have been opened.
The process, according to The Tide investigations, entails the account holder to pay in the required amount through a teller without an account number.
The Tide further gathered that the account holder is told to expect an alert that would give the account number to the account holder.
However, most of the customers that have reached that stage are yet to get such alerts weeks after.
An inside source at the bank that asked not to be named said the development may not be unconnected with the large customers the bank has to contend with.
The source further claimed that the recent sacking of two key staff of the bank worsened the situation.
When The Tide visited the bank hall recently, it was observed that the customer services department has only one staff who was attending to every customer that wants to open an account.
Also, before going to press, several efforts made by The Tide Correspondent to speak with the branch Manager, Mr Ndifereke Solomon Udoh was not successful as he was said to be too busy with official assignment.
Again, efforts to get his cell phone number from staff proved abortive as they claimed it was against the bank’s policy.
The customers however adviced the headquarters of the bank to deploy more staff for the branch in order to lighten the burden on the few staff at the branch office.
Regretably, Ahoada has only three banks which include, First Bank, Skye Bank and Ecobank that services the whole of the Orashi region and beyond.
So far most of the affected customers are contemplating withdrawing from doing business with the bank, even as they expressed the fear that the more would not be successful.
The Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has said that Bank Verification Number (BVN) enrolments rose by 6.8 per cent year-on-year to 67.8 million as at December 2025, up from 63.5 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2024.
In a statement published on its website, NIBSS attributed the growth to stronger policy enforcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the expansion of diaspora enrolment initiatives.
NIBSS noted that the expansion reinforces the BVN system’s central role in Nigeria’s financial inclusion drive and digital identity framework.
Another major driver, the statement said, was the rollout of the Non-Resident Bank Verification Number (NRBVN) initiative, which allows Nigerians in the diaspora to obtain a BVN remotely without physical presence in the country.
A five-year analysis by NIBSS showed consistent growth in BVN enrolments, rising from 51.9 million in 2021 to 56.0 million in 2022, 60.1 million in 2023, 63.5 million in 2024 and 67.8 million by December 2025. The steady increase reflects stronger compliance with biometric identity requirements and improved coverage of the national banking identity system.
However, NIBSS noted that BVN enrolments still lag the total number of active bank accounts, which exceeded 320 million as of March 2025.
The gap, it explained, is largely due to multiple bank accounts linked to single BVNs, as well as customers yet to complete enrolment, despite the progress recorded.