BANKING SERVICES AND PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NIGERIA. AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING TOOL FOR SURVIVAL IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
BANKING SERVICES AND PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NIGERIA. AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING TOOL FOR SURVIVAL IN A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1994-05
Authors
MASHI, ABDULLAHI UMAR
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The Nigerian Commercial Banking Services have
in the recent past been criticised and condemned.
They have been accused of conservation in their
operations. Some say their services across the
counter is poor and inefficient. That they spend
not less than two to three hours to cash a dheque.
The attitude of the Bank's staff has also been
castigated. There have been several newspaper articles
describing Nigerian Bankers to be untrained, slow,
discourteous, rude and non-chalant to customers'
yearnings. They were also accused of inefficiency
and favouritism.
The bankers on the other hand claimed that their
services are adequate and efficient for the present
banking habit. That, it is the poor banking ethics
of Nigerians that forced them to adopt stringent and
meticulous procedures to avert looses through frauds
and other dubious practises. They further argued that,
the computerisation technic adopted in Europe and
United States cannot immediately be introduced here
because majority of the customers that contribute
substantially to the revenue of the Banks are largely
illiterates. That apart, the Nigerian public are not
enlightened and trusting enough to accept cheques
whatmore credit cards for ordinary day to day
transactions. Therefore, since the bulk of businesses
being handled by the Banks largely involve liquid cash,
their procedures for sometime to come would have to
be manual and fairly time consuming.
To confirm or disaprove the allegations, a survey
was initiated. Questionnaires probing the feelings of
customers towards the services rendered by their main
bank were distributed among over sixty branches of the
three major banks, that is, United Bank for Africa PLC,
Union Bank of Nigeria PLC, and Afribank of Nigeria PLC.
throughout the state capitals including Abuja. The
three banks were specially selected in view of their
experience, standard and the fact that they account
for over 6O% of banking services in the country.
The survey findings reveal that:(a)
The Thesis advanced by the various critics of
commercial banks in Nigeria is false and
unfounded. It is clearly revealed that averagedly
customers spend less than thirty minutes to obtain
the required services.
(b) The claim that bank-tellers are rude,
discourteous, impleasant and non-chalant
was also found to be false and exagerative,
(c) The Commercial banks in Nigeria are not as
conservative as the critics postulated.
Rather, their operations and procedures are
tailored towards the level of understanding
of their customers. It is their believe
therefore that selective mechanisation as
they now practise would overtime improve their
services and reduce the customers ' waiting time.
(d) The banks adopt what look like cumbersome
procedure because of the poor banking ethics
of the society failed the banks in the past
when payments were usually effected with little
attention to verification vide dishonesty and
premeditated frauds.
(e) Some of the delays are caused due to high
labour turnover among the clerical staff and
the overstretched supervisors and officers.
(f) Finally, that if the Government can effectively
legislate making it an offence that would
attract maximum penelty for an individual
who issues cheque on an account not properly
funded or attempt to defraud the hank in
whatever way possible, then the banks would
be willing to relax some of their stringent
control procedures and in effect reduce the
waiting time.
In conclusion, therefore, improvement of
banking services is a function of both the Banks and
the society at large. If the society is honest and
matured in their dealings with the bank, it is more
than likely that more efficient banking services
would be enjoyed.
Description
A project submitted to the Pstgraduate School,
Ahmadu Bello University in partial fulfilment of
requirements for the award of degree of Master of
Business Administration of Ahmadu Bello University,
Zaria.
By
ABDULLAHI UMAR MASHI
MAY, 1994
Keywords
BANKING,, SERVICES,, PUBLIC,, RELATIONS,, NIGERIA, EFFECTIVE,, MARKETING,, TOOL,, SURVIVAL,, COMPETITIVE,, ENVIRONMENT,