Commercial banks are still carrying out customers accounts upgrading notwithstanding that the deadline given by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was January 31 to complete the exercise.

The initial deadline was December 31, 2010. The CBN extended the deadline to allow more people with bank accounts do the upgrading. Sunday Business gathered that almost all banks were still attending to customers last week after the customers threatened to close their accounts should they be denied the opportunity to upgrade them. The situation in the banks when Sunday Business visited revealed that the bankers continue to attend to their customers on the accounts upgrading.

Some bankers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that they must attend to the customers in order to stay in business. A cashier with Oceanic Bank in Lagos said, “we have to do what we believe would allow the bank to remain in business. For instance, since the pronouncement by the CBN on the final deadline, we have experienced massive withdrawal of money by our customers.

We even face a situation where some of them come to close their accounts for fear that their accounts could be suspended. You could see the number of people in the banking hall right now. Most of them are here to submit their forms and we have to accommodate them if we must remain in business. If we lose all our customers, that means the bank would go-under”.

Another official with the Intercontinental Bank at Ojodu area of Lagos said, “we are still upgrading the accounts for our customers because business must go on. But the only condition is that customers who had obtained the forms and are yet to submit must complete the exercise before any withdrawal could be made, but they are free to make deposit as often as they want”.

A customer, who spoke with our correspondent at a United Bank for Africa, UBA, branch in Lagos stressed, “I do not see any seriousness in the whole exercise. The reason is that, when you submit your account upgrading form, there is nothing to show that you have submitted. The banks would just collect the forms without issuing any note or document to customers to show that such exercise had taken place. You could see that there is even nothing to prove that you have submitted your form”.

A banker with the customers’ care unit of First Bank, at Acme road, Ogba, who spoke anonymously, said, “we only upgraded accounts for people who had changed their residential addresses and phone numbers, or those with old passports to reflect the new details.

Aside that, individuals who had not changed anything in their data base with the bank have no reason to upgrade their accounts, because the reason for upgrading is to reflect changes made by customers over time”.