Nigeria’s Silent Robbery: Banks and Telecoms Getting Away With Daylight Extortion
It’s a familiar story, isn’t it? You check your bank balance, and instead of seeing your hard-earned money, you find a string of mysterious deductions. You try to understand, but the bank’s explanation is vague, or worse, non-existent.
This isn’t just an isolated incident; it’s a systemic problem plaguing millions of Nigerians. And it’s happening with the apparent blessing of the Nigerian government and the National Communications Commission (NCC). We’re being bled dry. Every transaction, every service, comes with a hidden cost. USSD charges, mobile app fees, ATM card maintenance – the list is endless. You deposit money, and it vanishes, eaten away by fees you never agreed to. You buy airtime, and it disappears into thin air, with no recourse. You try to complain, and you’re met with indifference.
The banks, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank. They declare billions in profits, profits built on the small, seemingly insignificant deductions they make from millions of accounts. A naira here, a few naira there – it adds up to a fortune. They know we’ll often ignore small deductions, but they are playing a numbers game and winning.
And it’s not just the banks. The telecom companies are just as guilty. SMS charges are skyrocketing, data vanishes like magic, and midnight data bundles are becoming ridiculously expensive. They’re squeezing every last kobo out of us, and we’re letting them.
Where is the NCC? Where is the government? They’re supposed to be our protectors, our regulators. Instead, they seem to be complicit in this grand scheme.
Why? Because they profit from it. They benefit from the billions flowing into the banking and telecom sectors, so why would they dare to regulate them properly? We’re trapped in a system designed to exploit us. The banks and telecom companies know our weaknesses, and they’re using them against us. They know we’re busy, that we won’t always check our statements, that we’ll often give up trying to get refunds. They’re counting on our silence.
This has to stop. We need to demand accountability. We need to expose this daylight robbery for what it is. We need to ask: why are we paying for services that should be basic rights? Why are we being charged for simply keeping our money in a bank? Why is our data vanishing into the ether?
The government and the NCC need to step up and do their jobs. They need to protect the Nigerian people, not the profits of these predatory corporations. They need to enforce regulations that are fair and transparent. Until then, we’re all victims of a silent, insidious robbery, a robbery that’s happening with the full knowledge and, it seems, the implicit approval of those who are supposed to protect us. It’s time we say enough is enough.
