Nigerian banking scorecard: e minus

Why are Nigerian banks taking so long to get their act together? My own bank continually frustrates: a cheque I sent has just bounced even though there is enough money in my account. I think there must be a limit on the amount I can send (even though I don't know what it is and no one has thought to tell me). My account manager's phone is dead - I'm not really sure how to rectify the situation - where to go, who to call... No matter how many times I send cheques, there is no mechanism for building trust with customers (unless you are the million dollar variety).

My small-scale woes reflect the bigger picture. Unless you're a large corporate customer, Nigerian banks are simply not really interested in your business. Forget about an overdraft facility or a loan (unless you love double digit interest payments), let alone business advice. Many banks' internal financial management systems are woeful, and would fail the most basic adequacy test in terms of their internal financial systems and controls. We are still a long way from e-commerce or being able to do anything substantial online. Many banking halls are little more than cattle markets, with customers pressing up against each other, jostling to get to the front of the queue, in each other's business. Computer systems continually break down, putting ATM and basic operations out across the bank's network. Its all still quite a mess. There needs to be much more stringent regulation and guidance. There's too much big money swilling around for the banks here to care about ordinary folks.