Banks in Abakaliki on Thursday promised their customers of better services, including prevention of cash jams and other difficulties associated with cash withdrawal from Automated Teller Machines (ATM).
The banks made the promise in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on their readiness to ease the difficulties encountered by their customers.
They promised to deploy some of their staff members to man the machines, get the money ready for the machines and to attend to issues that could arise.
Mr Tom Osakuni, the Head of Operations at Fidelity Bank, said the bank had put measures in place to ensure that the machines ram and customers assisted.
“We, at Fidelity Bank, promise our customers that we are always ready to render excellent services; staff will be on standby to attend to any arising issues,” Osakuni assured.
On her part, Mrs Ngozi Ajah, the Head of Operations at Zenith Bank, said the bank was better prepared with staff members to monitor unfolding situations during the weekend and holiday.
Ajah said the difficulty encountered was mostly due to bad network from service providers.
She also said that people made multiple and frequent withdrawals and that customers tended to overcrowd some ATMs at the same time.
“People make panic withdrawals to have enough for the festive period; having simultaneous withdrawals by a large number of customers slows the systems down; this happens in all banks.
“We usually have members of staff standing by during the vacation but we are better prepared now with staff stationed to assist our customers,” she said.
Two bank customers, Mrs Olivia Ezeh and Amaka Upia, said in the separate interviews that the cash jam and other difficulties were more rampant during festive periods and long holidays.
They urged the various banks to monitor the machines to ease the stress and frustrations suffered by the customers.
“ATMs should be made easier to use and more accessible to customers; bank staff should also be there to help their customers,” they said.
NAN reports that a large number of customers made withdrawals in preparation for the weekend and New Year holiday in the banks visited. (NAN)