For many Nigerians, a failed bank transaction can mean days, weeks or even months of frustration and moving from one financial institution to another in search of answers.
When Lagos resident Anjola Yuti’s (not real name) N53,000 transfer went missing in September, what should have been a simple resolution became a maze of unanswered questions and finger-pointing between Guaranty Trust Bank, Wema Bank and Baxi, a fintech company.
An elderly woman initiated the transaction from GTBank to a Wema Bank account linked to a Baxi Point of Sales machine that Yuti operated.
Transaction reciept as generated by GTB.
According to the sender’s bank statement, the transfer was marked successful. But for the recipient, there was no credit alert, no deposit — just silence.
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“My account is linked to Baxi, which powers the PoS machine I use,” Yuti told FIJ.
“The money was sent on September 13. But I never received it, even though the sender’s bank records show it was successful.”
Since the PoS is Yuti’s business, she considers the trust of her customer as an important business currency. So, she bore the cost of the missing money. Yuti also kept her customer in the loop and secured the help of the woman to retrieve the missing money.
At first, the sender returned to GTBank, hoping for a fix. The bank, however, insisted the transaction had gone through. With no resolution, Yuti turned to Baxi, but the fintech company also denied receiving the money.
“They told me to check with the sender again,” the recipient said.
“The sender went back to GTBank, and then we both went to the bank’s head office. We lodged an official complaint, and I even provided my account statement from Baxi to prove that I never received the money.”
Despite this, GTBank maintained its stance: the money had been sent.
Seeking answers, the recipient decided to approach Wema Bank directly. There, they learnt something new — the receiving account was categorised as a fintech-linked account, meaning Wema Bank could not directly track the transaction without liaising with Baxi.
“They explained that because my account was linked to a PoS service, the communication had to be between the fintech company and the bank,” Yuti said.
“But Baxi still insisted they didn’t receive the money.”
The endless back-and-forth left the recipient questioning where exactly the money had gone.
“I asked if there were timestamps or tracking details that could pinpoint where the transaction got stuck,” they said.
“If GTBank says it was sent, and Baxi says it wasn’t received, where is the money sitting?”
“I plan to get official statements from both GTBank and Baxi to verify what happened. If this issue is not resolved soon, we will escalate publicly. Maybe that will make them take another look.”
FIJ confirmed the reference number of the transaction in question and the evidence of disbursal from the originating account. FIJ then reached out to Baxi, the fintech company, and Wema Bank, the recipient bank.
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On February 24, Wema responded to FIJ to write GTB for a first-level resolution since the transaction was initiated by the bank. The bank’s response read in full:
Dear Esteemed Customer,
Thank you for reaching out to us at Purple Connect. We appreciate you for bringing this to our attention. Review shows that transaction was initiated from a Gtbank account. Kindly be informed that you are required to reach out to gtbank for a first level resolution while we await an official mail from their end.
Thanks for choosing PurpleConnect
Warm regards,
FIJ exchanged a series of emails with Baxi, the fintech company servicing Yuti’s PoS terminal. On Tuesday, FIJ provided the transaction receipt, reference number, and details of both the sender and receiver to Baxi.
The fintech company later requested the customer’s account number on Wednesday, despite having the customer’s name and transaction reference number. FIJ responded, but as of press time, there has been no further reply.
FIJ also contacted the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) on Monday. The agency initially provided an automated response before following up with correspondence from Baxi and an open ticket, indicating a commitment to resolving the issue.
The post Lagos Customer’s N53,000 Missing Between GTB, Wema, Baxi for 5 Months appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.