The House of Representatives has decided to look into Zenith Bank’s purported freezing of certain of its clients’ bank accounts.
This resolution was a response to a motion made in plenary on Wednesday by Femi Bamishile (APC, Ekiti) about an urgent matter of public interest.
Mr. Bamishile, who was moving the motion, told the MPs that Zenith Bank offers an app for foreign exchange transactions. He claims that there has been no transaction cap on the app for years.
He stated that customers of the bank have been using the platform for transactions but that the app stopped recently.
Mr Bamishile said shortly after the App stopped, the bank also froze the bank accounts of some of the customers using the software.
“This App has been ongoing for some time, and there is no cap to the limit of money that can be bought or transferred either by an individual or business.
“Three weeks ago customers’ accounts were frozen and a message was sent out by Zenith Bank to their customers, asking them to refund the money they transferred using the App,” he said.
He cited a case of an unnamed man whom the bank is coercing to refund $100,000 after carrying out transactions via the App.
“A young man was invited and detained by the Special Fraud Unit. He was made to pay $100,000 back to the bank and also made to give an undertaken under duress stating that he made an illegal transaction,” the legislator said in the motion.
According to Mr. Bamishile, Zenith Bank should have equal responsibility for any interruption as they profited from every transaction completed through the app.
After the motion was approved, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen gave the committee on digital banking the go-ahead to investigate the matter and find a cooperative solution.
In two weeks, the committee is expected to report back to the House.
