Five leading commercial banks in Nigeria were forced to refund about N1.18 billion to their customers in their bid to resolve complaints in 2023.

The amount refunded represents a 736 percent year-on-year (YoY) increase when compared to N141.14 million refunded in 2022.

Analysis of data contained in the banks’ 2023 Financial Statement showed that 11,014,343 complaints were resolved in 2023 representing a 1,412 percent YoY increase when compared with 728,338 complaints resolved in 2022.

The number of unresolved complaints stood at 876,847 of which 248 (worth N389.4 million) were escalated to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and 875,999 (worth N94.04 million) are pending with banks.

When compared with 2022, the number of unresolved complaints grew by 7.5 percent to 876,181.

Similarly, 11,788,243 complaints were received during the period with a claimed amount of N43.96 billion.

This represents a 67.7 percent YoY rise and a 98.3 percent decline from received complaints (7,028,761) and claimed amount (N2.61 trillion) respectively in 2022.

Further analysis of data showed that the number of pending complaints declined YoY by 68.9 percent to 118,153 (worth N15.65 billion) in 2023 from 380,008 (worth N756.59 million) in 2022. (Vanguard)

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