Zenith Bank Internet Banking Services Still Down Nearly 24 Hours After “IT Maintenance”

Zenith Bank customers are complaining about their inability to access their accounts or make transactions almost 24 hours after the bank announced routine IT maintenance.

Contrary to the bank’s promise that online transactions would resume after 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday October 1, 2024, and from 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday October 2, bank customers still cannot log in to their application or do anything either. online transaction.

According to some of the bank’s customers, the downtime is attributed to IT maintenance since Monday, making it the third day they have been unable to access their money.

Customers moan

Many of the bank’s customers have taken to social media to express their frustration as service outages continue with no hope of recovery in sight.

One of the customers, Bassey Offiong, wrote in an article on X:

“Zenith Bank Plc!” What’s wrong with your online banking platform? Is this not the height of insensitivity, carelessness and negligence?

“How many more Nigerians must be plunged into distress, trauma, heart attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts or sudden death?»

https://x.com/BasseyO65273190/status/1841372355823648951

In Nairaland, a customer identified as Samuel lamented that his family suffered from hunger due to the disruption in the bank’s services.

“The experience is really hurtful. Until now my children have not eaten because of a useless bank I deposited my money in. The scheduled time has passed but there is no network connection to carry out any transaction. he said.

https://www.nairaland.com/8227995/zenith-bank-mobile-app-down/1

Another customer identified as Michael on X; said it lost sales due to Zenith Bank’s network problem.

“The Zenith Bank network has been bad since yesterday, I did not log in to my mobile application, causing me to lose a good sales opportunity, it is high time to delete my account”, » he declared.

https://x.com/kickassCopywrit/status/1841388884824916019

Routine computer maintenance?

In a post shared on its social media platforms on Tuesday, Zenith Bank said the IT department was carrying out routine IT maintenance to improve its quality of service.

“Please note that we are currently undertaking regular maintenance of our IT infrastructure, to enable us to significantly improve the quality of the service provided to you.

“On Tuesday October 1, 2024, our Mobile Banking App., USSD Service, Internet Banking and Corporate Internet Banking platforms will be unavailable between 00:01 and 14:30 WAT.

“We seek your understanding and offer you assurance that measures are in place to minimize any service disruption during the exercise,” » said the bank.

However, reports suggest that the bank could do more than just IT maintenance, but migrate its core banking platform to a new one.

Zenith Bank, which previously used Phoenix, a software developed by London-based Finastra, is reportedly migrating to Oracle’s Flexcube, a platform used by many other Nigerian banks.

For banks, changing core banking software is a significant change that requires the transfer of large amounts of data and more rigorous action than regular IT maintenance.

Efforts by Nairametrics to obtain more details directly from Zenith Bank proved futile as calls to the bank’s Media Relations Manager, Ayoola Kusimo, went unanswered. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him at the time of filing this report.

What you need to know

Tier 1 Zenith Bank was one of the largest sources of revenue from electronic transactions in H2 2024, according to its financial results.

The bank generated N41.2 billion in H1 2024, a remarkable 85.6% increase from the N22.2 billion earned in H1 2023.

For the period, the bank also increased its IT spending from N8.6 billion in H1 2023 to N23 billion in H2 2024, an increase of 167%.