Financial expert worries over increasing bank charges on customers

A financial expert, Professor Adebiyi Abosede, has expressed worries over increasing charges imposed on customers by commercial banks in the country.

Abosede, a professor of Business Finance at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, said this while delivering the 108th inaugural lecture titled, “Managing Enterprise: Trends, Travails and Takeaways” of the Institution, held at the main campus, recently.

He posited that the nation’s banks are not doing far better than the operators of the Point of Sale (PoS) system who charged customers on any transaction while explaining that the banks are not prepared in anyway for the 21st-century digital banking challenges.

“The POS is the point of sales. So, when you go to a POS and want to take money from them, you are more or less buying money from them, that is why you have to pay charges. If you go to banks these days and make withdrawals, you will pay charges. If you make deposits, they will still charge you. Isn’t it? And they still use your money to trade.

“So, banks will take your money to trade and make money but charge you for using your own money. That is the area of the hidden charges. In addition, when they give loans, what you will see is interest rates but not the other charges they will put in the package such that at the end of the day, a 30 per cent interest rate for example, will now look like a 37 per cent rate. These are the issues, that is why I said, banks (in Nigeria) are not performing and they are even making money by using your money. They make money by charging you for using your money.”

Professor Abosede identified the informal sector as a major contributor to the growth of the nation’s economy, hence advised its operators to learn the art of keeping simple records of their operations.

He said, “Operators of the informal sector need to undertake capacity building so that they can integrate strategic management into their activities via planned strategy.

“It is obvious they may not go through the whole hog of strategic management, but they should be able to apply SWOT analysis to what they do and be clear about goal-setting.”