Experts in the Information Communication Technology have maintained that negligence on the part of Nigerian banks to carry out routine maintenance check on their Automated Teller Machines across the country will have harmful effects on the devices and the banking public.
According to them, over 50 per cent of the banks fail to carry out the required quarterly check on the machines across the country.
They insisted that the negligence was responsible for incessant cases of cards that were seized and destroyed by the machines, which cost cardholders about N1,000 to replace.
The Managing Partner, Wellspring Resources and System limited, Engr. Emmanuel Lawson, explained that most of the machines were not bought as new, alleging that some had been phased out in developed countries before being brought here.
“Once a machine is due for maintenance, it starts to malfunction and the issue of seizure of cards becomes imminent. Banks don’t adhere to this because of the cost of the exercise. Some machines are not serviced for 12 months and if the machines develop major faults, the cost of repair is usually more than that of maintenance,” he stated.
Software experts have also picked holes in the technology used by the banks for the machines, pointing out that some of them were obsolete.
A software consultant, Engr. Yomi Odunsi, observed that if programmed software in the machines did not align with some cards, it would not interface with the system of the paying bank and such machines might seize the card.
“If the operating system of the machine does not intercept compatibly with bank of the card in question, it simply means that the card is not recognised by the machine; it will assume that a strange object is entering the system and the card will get stocked in the machine. Banks should create more awareness on the compatibility of their machines in order to help users save cost of retrieving cards,” he explained.
