By Prince J Musa in Kenema
Some customers of the Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) in Kenema, mostly government workers, have expressed dissatisfaction over what they described as unexplained charges deducted from their salaries deposited with the bank.
Lahai Aruna, a teacher, told Politico that he had for ‘quite some time now noticed a deduction of twenty-five thousand Leones from his salary each time without any information’, adding that ‘the bank did not inform us about the reasons for which they have been knifing some amount of money from our salaries’. He threatened that would take action ‘if the bank failed to explain the reasons for the deduction’.
Kadiatu Fornah a nurse noted that the Bank recently issued them a form to complete which they did but that they did not explain anything about the regular deductions from their salary.
Another affected Teacher Richard Saidu Saffa said that when he enquired about the issues, bank officers told him that the bank deducts some amount of money on any transaction done by their customers. “The bank did not treat us fairly as customers. Anything the bank wants to do, it should communicate with us as customers,’’ he said.
Responding to the concerns of the aggrieved customers, the RCB Kenema Branch Manager Sandi Massaquoi said the amount deducted is a policy for all savings accounts.
He apologized to the customers on behalf of the management of the Bank noting that it was their responsibility to effectively communicate with their customers.
“I want to apologize on behalf of the management for not giving a detailed communication to our customers but it’s a policy for saving accounts,” he said
Massaquoi said it is their policy that the minimum balance for all savings accounts is now fifty thousand Leones, an increase of thirty thousand Leones and noted that the money is withheld only once.
The manager said the amount has been added as a result of the new electronic system introduced by the bank for transaction purposes. Speaking on the form issued to their customers, he said the information was collected to ‘update the information for accounts that had gone dormant’. He said the update form captured the particulars of the account owners with pictures of the person for easy identification. This he said will stop impersonation and other illegal activities on customers' accounts and general financial fraud.
Copyright © 2022 Politico 07/02/22
