Why are Nigerian banks closing earlier than normal?

Commercial banks in Nigeria are shutting their doors earlier than normal, and customers are beginning to notice.

The normal operating hours of commercial banks in Nigeria are between 8 am and 4 pm from Mondays to Fridays. But in recent times, some banks are beginning to send notices to their customers that some of their branches will be closing earlier.

Some commercial bank branches in some areas have permanently adjusted their opening time to between 10 am to 3 pm from Monday to Friday, while some banks have only made this adjustment in select branches.

What is causing the change?

According to an email notification sent to customers, UBA bank blamed the opening time adjustment on the security situation in some parts of the country. The time adjustment does not affect all branches, only select branches in areas the bank deem to be high security risk have been affected. A list of affected branches is available on the UBA website.

Another reason for the adjustment in opening times of banks is the rising energy cost, particularly diesel, which has affected all sectors of the economy, forcing many organisations including commercial banks to stagger operating hours to manage cost.

In some areas, the pump price of diesel per litre has risen to as high as N800 from the N225/litre in January 2021. All these coupled with the fact that Nigeria is also battling with epileptic power supply as a result of incessant national grid collapse. Service time for customers as well as working hours for staff are also being reduced.

what these means for Nigerian bank customers?

These reduced service times might cause more traffic in the banking halls as there will now be more customers to attend to in a shorter time. Always check the opening times of your bank when going to the bank before 10 am or after 2 pm. Most customer service issues can be dealt with online through social media without the need to visit a bank branch for resolution. Simply follow your bank’s social media handles and you can make your complaints via their DMs.

Most banks respond faster and resolve most problems more efficiently via social media or emails because your messages usually goes directly to more experienced and better resourced staffs at the headquarters rather than complaining to a staff at a branch who still has to contact headquarters for resolution.