FirstBank: Sustaining Seamless, Hitch-free Customer Banking Transaction Experience

In this piece, James Emejo, evaluates FirstBank’s commitment to ensuring that its customers can carry out seamless and uninterrupted banking transactions amid a service glitch recently experienced by some banks in the banking industry.

The banking transaction architecture of some banks recently encountered some turbulence that resulted from attempts by the banks to effect major system/software upgrades to better serve customers.

The development resulted into some sorts of chaos as some bank customers remained unable to initiate or complete their various banking transactions for weeks, leading to worries and anxiety.

In its commitment to provide improved platform for interaction with its vendors, FirstBank had sent a message strictly “intended for our vendors only” and which “focused on transitioning from our current I-Supplier Platform (our automated platform that connects us to suppliers) to a new Cloud-based Supplier Platform (worldclass platform for managing suppliers)”. This was to enable additional capabilities and benefits for the vendors.

Nonetheless, the communication was misinterpreted in a few media outlets and based on the misleading stories some people amplified the false narratives   and created confusion among the FirstBank customers – by suggesting that the bank was also undergoing core banking applications upgrade – which turned out to be false, according to THISDAY investigations.

The FirstBank management promptly issued a statement to set the records straight that no “system upgrade is currently underway, and all our customer applications are fully operational.”

The management added, “We are not experiencing disruption to our services, and our banking systems, customer transactions, channels, etc, will not be affected by the enhanced supplier platform.”

The bank further assured customers of its commitment to seamless service delivery remains which remained “unwavering as you continue to enjoy uninterrupted access to our services”.

THISDAY investigations further fact-checked the bank’s claims that it had not embarked on any disruptive programme that could affect service delivery.

A visit to some bank branches in Abuja and Lagos as well as the use of the banking channels confirmed that the bank’s customers were able to carry out transactions seamlessly.  This was a further testament to the fact that no upgrade had been embarked upon by the bank contrary to speculations in some quarters. 

It was further established that that FirstBank carries the most transaction volumes in the industry – nearly more than three banks combined.

The bank’s previous investment in IT platforms and careful planning had clearly paid off, following years of infrastructure modernisation and refresh.

Notably, eight projects had been delivered over the last two years to refresh infrastructure capacity and ensure technology systems are in place to support enhanced performance and availability.

This is coupled with the availability of network devices in over 350 locations in Nigeria and African subsidiaries which were upgraded to enhance service quality and user experience.

Furthermore, with core systems upgrade of core banking application to a higher version which was completed in 2019, FirstBank core banking platform had been strengthen for a fit for future business growth.

In 2023, the core banking infrastructure was further enhanced to improve capacity and performance as Sub-Sharan Africa was completely overhauled in 2024 to ensure adequate capacity to support growing business transactions, therefore, shielding its huge customer base from painful service disruptions as recently witnessed in the banking industry.  

As a result of its continuous investments in digital infrastructure, FirstBank’s total transactions for October 2024 were well over 1.1 billion transactions which translated to about 66 million transactions between October 26 and 27 (the period that the false claims of banking upgrade were to have taken place), and arguably the highest in the industry.

With international footprints cut across three continents ─ Africa, Europe and Asia, FirstBank remains the premier bank in West Africa, a leading financial inclusion services provider in Africa, a digital banking giant and has been at the forefront of promoting digital payment in the country with over 13 million cards issued to customers (the first bank to achieve such a milestone in Nigeria). This is in addition to providing a comprehensive range of retail and wholesale financial services to over 42 million customer accounts (including digital wallets) spread across Nigeria, UK and sub-Saharan Africa through more than 820 business offices and over 243,400 agent locations spread across 772 out of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.

The bank has continued to make significant investments in technology, innovation and transformation, and its cashless transaction drive has been steadily accentuated with over 23 million active FirstBank customers signed up on digital channels including the USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code.

In recognition of its commitment to tailored-made financial solutions, FirstBank received notable awards including “Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investing in Africa 2023” by Global Finance Awards; “Best Sustainable Bank in Nigeria 2023” by International Investors Awards; “Best Bespoke Banking Services in Nigeria 2023” by International Investors Awards; “Best Financial Inclusion Service Provider in Nigeria 2023” by Digital Banker Africa; and “African Bank of the Year” by African Leadership Magazine’ ’Best Corporate Bank in Nigeria 2023’’ by Euromoney Awards and ‘’Most Innovative Banking Brand – Nigeria 2023’’ by Global Brands Award.