By Dulue Mbachu
When the news broke some weeks ago that Zenith Bank had declared an annual profit of 230.5 billion naira for 2020, it crossed my mind that my 148,354 naira withheld by the bank for the past year may have been counted as gain.
On February 10, 2020, I used my Zenith Bank app to settle a bill to Quickteller (owned by Interswitch) for an Arik Air ticket priced 47,111.00 naira. Though my Zenith Bank account was charged, Arik didn’t issue the ticket because, it said, the money didn’t get to it.
Interswitch confirmed it received the payment and due to some glitch it didn’t go through to Arik. So I paid for a fresh ticket while Interswitch promised to reverse the transaction, with the funds due in my account by February 20. Interswitch then sent me evidence it had initiated the payment reversal, and copied me in an email sent to no less than 14 people and units in Zenith Bank, including their key reconciliation officials, providing them the reversal instructions.
