Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) has admitted facing difficulties in its recent transition to a new core banking system, Finacle Suite of Core Banking Application Systems, which caused disruptions to its services.

While apologizing to its customers, the bank in a statement released on Wednesday acknowledged the inconveniences experienced by customers and expressed gratitude for their patience and continued support during the challenging period.

GTBank reaffirmed its commitment to improving the customer experience, stating that the system upgrade was necessary to enhance agility, adaptability, and service delivery.

Reassuring its customers that the transition was aimed at achieving a seamless and superior service experience in the long term, GTBank explained:

“When we began the process of implementing the new Finacle Suite of Core Banking Application Systems, our goals were clear: to remain agile as we grow, adaptable, and most importantly, to improve your service experience. Yet, we must humbly acknowledge the challenges along the way.

“The process, though necessary, brought with it delays in transaction processing and interruptions to what should be seamless service and we sincerely apologize for this.

“We recognize how deeply this period of service disruptions affected your personal activities and business operations and we thank you for standing with us through it all, offering grace in times of frustration. Thank you for believing in us and allowing us the privilege of continuing to serve you. We are grateful beyond measure.”

GTBank had on October 9th, 2024 notified its customers of an impending migration of its core banking application system to a new one, which would cause a temporary disruption in banking services.

The transition to a new and robust suite of Finacle Core Banking Application Systems was set to commence on Friday, October 11, 2024, and was expected to be completed by Monday, October 14, 2024.

However, the Bank had to extend its initial timeline of service restoration, saying the transition was taking longer than anticipated.

During that period, customers of the Bank struggled to transact, many were frustrated as they could not withdraw their money in the bank.

GTBank was not the only Nigerian bank that had transitioned to a new core banking system in recent time.

Customers of tier-2 Sterling Bank were the first to experience the disruptions that lasted for days earlier in September as the lender commenced the migration of its systems from T24 to SEABaaS, a new custom-built core banking application locally developed.

Similarly, customers of Zenith Bank woke to a harrowing experience of service outage on October 1. The Bank would later announce it was carrying out a ‘routine IT maintenance’ the results of which the customers are yet to recover from as of the time of filling this report.

Zenith is migrating its system from Phoenix, a software developed by London-based Finastra, to Oracle’s Flexcube.
Industry sources have also hinted that other banks are planning to transition but would not want to announce it in order not to cause panic withdrawals by their customers.

VFS Global has announced the opening of Africa’s biggest UK visa application centre (VAC) in Lagos.

The centre commenced operations on November 19 according to a statement.

VFS said Nigerians travelling to the UK can now book appointments to submit their visa applications through VACs located in Abuja and Lagos (Ikeja and Victoria Island).

Marc Owen, director of visa, status and information services at UKVI, said “the opening of our new VAC in Ikeja marks an exciting milestone for UKVI and VFS Global in the provision of a world-class UK visa service here in Nigeria across Africa”.

“In the year to June 2024, we processed more than 225k UK visas for Nigerian nationals across all categories and this new partnership demonstrates our continued commitment to ensuring our visa services are accessible, efficient and meet the needs of all applicants,” Owen added.

“I’m delighted to be here in person as we celebrate this important moment together with our customers and partners.”

Jonny Baxter, British deputy high commissioner, said: “I am delighted to witness the opening of this, the largest visa application centre in Africa. Nigeria remains one of the UK’s most important partners, and we hope that VFS deliver ever improving services for those applying for visas to the UK.”

Alok Singhal, head sub-saharan Africa, VFS Global, said the company is excited to embark “on this new journey”.

“We have enjoyed a long-standing partnership with UK Visas and Immigration since 2003 and look forward to now bringing travellers from Nigeria our best in-class services,” Singhal said.

VFS Global will also provide VAS for the UK in 31 countries across Africa.

The company said customers can now choose from an array of convenient options.

“These include document upload assistance, prime time for application submission outside of business hours, SMS notifications, document checking service, and courier return of the passport once a decision has been made,” VFS Global said.

“VFS Global’s Keep My Passport While Applying service allows customers to keep their passports once their application is submitted and biometrics have been enrolled.

“Customers will only need to re-submit their passport when a decision is reached.

“Customers in Abuja can also submit their UK visa applications from the comfort and safety of their home, office, or any other preferred location with our ‘On Demand Mobile Visa’ service.

“In addition, our Premium Lounge service offers personalised submission experience with dedicated staff members.”

Interested customers can make bookings in advance at https://visa.vfsglobal.com/nga/en/gbr or at the visa application centre. 

VFS Global also said the services are completely optional and have no bearing on the processing timeline and visa application outcome.

Access Bank Plc says it has completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank in Angola and Sierra Leone.

In April 2022, Standard Chartered said it would fully exit operations in seven countries in Africa and the Middle East (AME) as part of plans to upscale its businesses.

Standard Chartered, on July 23, 2023, reached an agreement to sell its subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa to Access Bank.

Updating investors in a corporate filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Wednesday, Access Holdings announced the completion of the acquisition of two Standard Chartered Banks in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Further to our July 14, 2023 announcement regarding the above subject, Access Holdings Plc (‘Access Holdings’ or ‘the Company’) is pleased to announce that its flagship subsidiary, Access Bank Plc (‘Access Bank’ or ‘the Bank’) has completed the acquisition of Standard Chartered Bank Angola S.A and Standard Chartered Bank (Sierra Leone] Limited (‘the Acquisitions’),” the company said.

Commenting on the milestone, Roosevelt Ogbonna, managing director and chief executive officer (MD/CEO) of Access Bank Plc and CEO of the Banking Group said the development will expand the company’s earnings.

“We are pleased to have successfully concluded 2 important acquisitions in Angola and Sierra Leone, affording us synergies to strengthen the quality of our earnings from both countries by significantly growing our share of the Corporate and SME banking in the two markets,” Ogbonna said.

“The combinations represent another significant step towards our broader vision of becoming the World’s Most Respected African Bank.”

The statement further said both parties “are working on the completion of transactions that would see Access Bank acquire Standard Chartered Bank’s subsidiaries in Cameroon, the Gambia and its Consumer, Private and Business Banking business in Tanzania”.

Two weeks ago, Access Holdings announced that Access Bank United Kingdom (UK) had signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Afrasia Bank Limited, the fourth-largest bank in Mauritius by assets.