Nigerian mobile-only bank licensed by the Central Bank, Kuda Bank, is facing what seems like a doom point for the bank as users are quickly shutting down their accounts.
This is due to a recent allegation against Kuda Bank, which followed a viral video showing one of its customers being harassed and arrested unruly at its office in Yaba, Lagos State, Nigeria.
How it all started
On Sunday, April 17, 2022, the brother of the customer in question made a post on Twitter using the handle @ayam_jamotech. He said his brother made a transfer that totalled ₦1.2 million as the balance in his account. Kuda Bank decided to lock the account to investigate why he had such an amount of money in his account.
He went further to explain that his brother was a hard worker and had transacted over ₦10 million without any issues from the bank.
After the customer in question went to the bank to lay a complaint, Kuda said they were investigating the situation but on Tuesday, On April 19, @ayam_jamotech made a new tweet which showed that the situation was getting worse — his brother was reportedly assaulted by the police at Kuda Bank’s office.
“So my brother went to @kudabankhelp office today at yaba to know the reason why his account was locked and yet not to be opened after dropping his proof to them that it’s legit money and not fraud money at all. So funny how when he got there this morning. They sent their mopol.”
This followed a video showing his brother being manhandled and forcefully dragged out of the office building by law enforcement officers on the ground. He wrote:
“Everybody help me to retweet and tag appropriate people that can help look into this case!! Those people have injured my brother. They press tear gas on his face. Now they’re taking him to the police custody. Please everybody help!!!! God why’s this happening when I’m not around.”
Although Kuda Bank released an official post stating that none of its staff was involved in the mishap, customers are not still convinced. The bank wrote:
“It has come to our attention that a couple of videos are being circulated online regarding the experience of one of our customers yesterday. The videos show the customer being forcefully escorted off our premises by members of the Nigerian Police Force. We wish to unequivocally state that Kuda Microfinance Bank Limited does not condone or support such violence in any manner, particularly against its customers.”
“Having said the foregoing, as a financial institution licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, we have an obligation to comply with all the mandates of all applicable government and law and law enforcement agencies, supported by appropriate documentation.”
The bank went further to state that the customer refused to cooperate with the law enforcement officers and the unfortunate incident took place.
“It is truly unfortunate that the customer’s failure to cooperate with the law enforcement officers unfolded in the manner that it did, particularly as the customer was being apprehended by the members of the Nigerian Police Force further to their investigation into alleged criminal activity on the customer’s account.”
The public are very much dissatisfied with the bank’s claims of its workers not being involved. If this is how other banks handle situations like this, there would be no firm standing banks today. This can be likened to a young guy being mistaken for a yahoo boy, beaten up and taken to the station without proof.
“Leave Kuda while you can. ‘One stick no dey chook person eye twice.’ Their statement clearly shows they’re using the brutality of the Nigerian Police to handle customers. Police will brutalize youths on the road and still brutalize us in the bank that our money is. Rubbish!” a user, @DW3663 wrote.
“Just saw a story where someone said that Kuda Bank locked his account because of suspicion of fraud and when he went to their office, they intimidated him with police. Kuda Bank was very amazing and young people celebrated it and called it Bank of the Free just a year ago,” another user with the @DrPenking stated.
This highly discourages Kuda’s growth plan unless the bank has a great ‘bounce back up strategy’.
“Kuda Bank really needs to work on their public image. I don’t use them, but I already know they are bad.” @ToyosiGodwin.
Deleting the Kuda app from his phone, @UmanaGodswill tweeted; “Hello Kuda, Treat your customers better. @kudabankhelp I’m a youth too, I wouldn’t like to be harassed by Policemen because I want free transfers. I’ll stay with my first bank.”