Customers, micro-finance bank lock horns over ‘frozen’ deposits
Tracy Igbinovia, a computer operator, is a depositor with the SBDC Micro-Finance Bank in Benin City, Edo State. Earlier this week, she was at the bank to withdraw part of her savings but could not.
Tracy told that she had been saving money at the bank daily since last year.
“I embarked on daily contributions with SBDC MicroFinance Bank to be able to pay the school fees of my younger ones but now I can’t get my money,” she said.
A worker at the bank, Ndidi, used to go to Tracy’s shop to collect her savings from Monday to Friday every week.
But now, Tracy and over 2,000 other depositors are battling to get their money. The customers, who also made daily deposits with the bank, stormed the Investment Building office of the SBDC MicroFinance Bank at Ring Road, Benin City at about 10am Wednesday, asking for their money.
Our reporter who was at the scene observed an inscription written in red on the building: “EFCC for investigation”.
“My money with the bank is N64, 400, when I wanted to collect it last week, they told me there was no money and when I met the manager, she told me to be patient, that they would pay me,” Tracy said.
According to her, when she inquired about the EFCC mark on the building, she was told that they didn’t have any problem with the EFCC but their partners.
“But today, they are now telling us that they can’t pay because of the EFCC issue. I need to pay my younger ones’ school fees,” she said.
Another depositor, Jude Omoh, a businessman, said he wanted to withdraw his money to pay the February salaries of his staff and shop rent.
“When I came last month they said they were having problems with the EFCC and that they would pay me when they resolved it. But I became suspicious last week when I called one of the staff to know when I could come for my money and she told me that the bank was owing her three months salaries and was fighting to get her salaries,” he said.
Another depositor, blessing Aniebere, who operates a hairdressing salon, said she wanted to use her money on her shop but the bank was telling her that it was unavailable.
“This is recession period and N61,000 is not small money. Please, you people should help me beg them to pay me my money,” she said.
Samson Agidigbi, a member of a cooperative society, said they had N800,000 in the bank. He said they had been banking with them in the past three years and was about depositing more money when he saw customers gathering in clusters, discussing how to get their money back. Others depositors appealed to the bank to give them their money.
The bank manager, who gave her name as Bridget, pleaded with the over 2,000 customers to give them some time to sort things out.
She said they were facing some challenges as a result of the freezing of the bank’s account by the EFCC, promising to pay them on installments.
“The Association of MicroFinance Banks is aware of our challenges and they have promised to help us out,” she said, but did not say if they earlier told the depositors a different thing before that day.