Amid the uncertainties that have trailed Access Bank’s alleged closure of 340 branches across Nigeria, the bank has not only denied the allegations, insisting the branches were closed at the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown; but as part of its commitment to increase access to banking services in communities across the country, Access Bank said yesterday, it has concluded plan to open 10 “Access CLOSA” outlets in six cities in Nigeria.
A statement explained that the “CLOSA” branches are Access Bank branded cabins situated in metropolitan areas offering banking services to its customers. Managed by Access Bank and Agency banking representatives, Access CLOSA branches will begin operations in Rivers, Lagos, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Delta, Anambra, and Kogi states.
The bank described the move as a timely intervention to mitigate the effect of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It stated that the branches would be located not less than three kilometers or more than 20 kilometers from the nearest existing Access Bank branch, and would offer banking services such as cash deposits and cash withdrawals (no 3rd party withdrawals), customer on-boarding, funds transfer subject to a limit of N150,000, BVN enrolment, card issuance, card activation, cheques deposit, bills payment, and ATM services.
Speaking about the initiative, the Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc., Herbert Wigwe was quoted as saying: “Access CLOSA was introduced last year, and now, the peculiarities of the Coronavirus has made it even more important to bring banking services closer to the people. Access Bank understands that the risk of transmission is higher in congested spaces and to mitigate this risk, we will be commissioning 10 more banking outlets to serve the needs of our esteemed customers.
“The CLOSA banking service is not being introduced to replace our existing branches, rather aid the Bank in delivering on its commitment to offer best-in-class service to our customers. We are not aloof to the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whilst we will do all that is required to ensure branches remain safe for our employees and customers in line with the protocol advised by the health authorities, we urge our customers to leverage on our digital channels in carrying out transactions.”
The announcement to open the CLOSA branches came after Access Bank denied news making the rounds that it would sack 75% of its workforce and as well close over 300 branches. The bank denied this in a statement by its Company Secretary, Mr. Sunday Ekwochi, posted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) website. Access said the closure of a bank branch was an action that required the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). According to the bank, it has not applied for nor obtained the approval of CBN for the closure of its branches as widely speculated.
“The bank has only suspended operations in some branches following the directive by the CBN. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, we suspended in-branch operations at different locations as directed by the CBN and in line with business continuity plans at vulnerable spots; whilst we continued to provide services through our alternative digital platforms.
“In line with the phased re-opening of the economy effective May 4, following the Presidential directives, we will be resuming in-branch services in some of our affected branches in a programmed manner to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers. This is also necessary to provide relevant contingency should there be any incident arising from the pandemic. We deny in its entirety the baseless and twisted speculation that the bank is sacking 75 per cent of its workforce,” said the statement.
It noted that based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, not all its branches would be fully open for in-branch services until later in the year. “This has made it impossible for many of our outsourced workers to perform duties as usual. We have commenced engagement with various stakeholders with a view to ensuring that they provide the relevant services and optimum manpower as may be required by the bank on an on-going basis,” it added.
The bank, however, assured its esteemed stakeholders that it would continue to ensure that its actions and decisions are guided by fairness, justice, equity and good conscience. The Managing Director reportedly announced the closure of over 300 branches nationwide via video conferencing in a town hall meeting with the staff, which went viral on social media over the weekend. Regarding the planned mass retrenchment of its workers, Wigwe was heard in the video saying about 75% of the staff, most of whom are outsourced and are offering “non-essential services,” would be affected; hinting that he himself will be taking a 40% salary cut.
But in a swift reaction, the Head Media Relations, Access Bank, Abdul Imoyo, said Wigwe’s comments were taken out of context, noting that the branches were closed at the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Imoyo said: “This is not correct. Branches were closed at the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown. As the structure of the lockdown has been relaxed, the branches will be reopened in a phased approach, and with adherence to physical distancing guidelines. We advised the public when we closed over 540 branches (60 left to operate) in response to our business continuity plan for a crisis of this nature. This was further buttressed by Lagos State and subsequently the FGN’s stay at home or work from home order.
“With the proposed lifting of that order from May 4th, we recognise that the threat of the virus is still out there and are planning to do a phased opening of the branches. So yes an additional 200 branches (bringing the total to 260) would be opened in the first phase.” He continued: “The staff at the frontline are also people’s sons, daughters, wives; husbands, etc. and we have to be very mindful how we expose them. So staff would also be rotated. We have however made arrangements to pair the branches so customers whose branches are yet to be opened can be served from an alternate branch and those messages are going out to customers over this weekend and by Monday,” he added.
All this comes barely one year after Access acquired Diamond Bank in a $235million deal that reputedly created Africa’s largest bank by customers. Recall that in December 2018, Access had agreed to buy mid-tier lender, Diamond Bank with cash and shares, creating a bank with 29 million customers, which the two banks have said is more than any other bank in Africa. The acquisition also reduced the number of players in Nigeria’s banking sector, where the top five banks control more than 60% of its assets.