Residents of Amuwo-Odofin, who are customers of Zenith Bank, have been stranded for over 24 hours. They have been unable to carry out transactions or even access their account.
According to a memo sent by the bank to their customers of a routine IT maintenance and a promise that online transactions would resume after 2.30 pm on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, as of time of writing this report on Wednesday, October 2, customers of the bank are still unable to log in to their app, or do any online transaction.
In Amuwo-Odofin, many customers are seen going to the bank to find a resolve to this situation but they meet a closed entrance.
Many of the bank’s customers have taken to social media to express their frustration as the service downtime continues without any hope of restoration in sight.
In a message shared across its social media platforms on Tuesday, Zenith Bank said IT was carrying out routine IT maintenance to improve its quality of service.
“Please be informed that we are currently undertaking a routine maintenance of our Information Technology Infrastructure to enable us to significantly improve the quality of service rendered to you.
“On Tuesday, October 01, 2024, our Mobile Banking App., USSD Service, Internet Banking, and Corporate Internet Banking platforms will be unavailable between the hours of 12:01 am and 2:30 pm WAT.
“We solicit your understanding and offer our assurances that measures are in place to minimize any service interruptions during the exercise,” the bank stated.
However, reports suggested that the bank may be doing more than IT maintenance but migrating 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, switching their core banking software is a significant change that requires transferring large amounts of data and more rigorous action than regular IT maintenance