Nigerian Banks And Security Control; My Zenith Experience —– Kweku Nkrumah

My first encounter with Zenith (or a Nigerian bank at all) must have been in early 2009, just after the recess and shuffle of the sector.

Just before you read further, allow me introduce myself; my name is Kweku Nkrumah, a Ghanaian businessman who loves traveling and writing sometimes.

A lot of worry about the financial health of the banks, leadership/administrative policy, security control and personnel management had led to a real restructuring and a new cause for banking in Africa’s biggest economy; the stage was finally (re)set for industry players and the most creative ideology.

For reasons of time and space however, this piece will focus on my experience with banks with respect to physical and cyber-security challenges.

Nine years later I’m back to the country and I need lower denomination of Naira notes, I quickly walked into a reputable mid-generation bank and customers had to go into hall without their items just as the security told everyone with every sense of arrogance “items at customers’ risk”; now this bank had no form of gating or protection (big as the structure was).

For some more complex transaction I had to move to the bank just beside it (another mid generation bank), the hall had too many customers waiting and snail-speed internet service..then my third option..Zenith bank.

Now Zenith bank looked structured in a deliberate manner, one that makes it difficult for a wrong-doer to find a way out..that’s a concerned organisation!

Furthermore, I observed an uncanny zeal among the bank workers, that beside the seeming freedom with which everyone went about his duty, it felt more like confidence in something I couldn’t figure out; finally I was done with my transaction and two security staff of the bank walked me to the car with smiles and so much cordination. One major thing that suprised me is the fact that these guys refused to make demands compared to their counterparts in other Nigerian banks I’ve been to, the usual line of ‘Anything for the boys’ didn’t slip out of their lips.

I placed a call later to my banker cousin in another bank and he said “No Zenith bank staff has his life in his mouth”, that explained everything I experienced in the bank including personnel arrangement and positioning. I had observed very fortified walls and armoured glasses for extra protection of life and deposits and then the confidence made sense.

As a deposit house, it might not be out of place for some unwanted elements to harbour unholy thoughts and some organisations take it beyond having the strongest walls, armoured glasses and barricades.

Few days later, I visited banks within the Lagos metropolis like I owned half their shares and I dare say that while almost every bank has two or three CCTV cameras, more than half of the banks have just two working, I found out from a simple test with my phone and confirmation from a few workers.

Contrary to what I had seen, Zenith bank cameras always left me feeling overly monitored and then I was reminded how quickly footage was released after the infamous attack on an Owerri branch (hope i got that correctly) sometime ago, the fastest response recorded.

One observation after another and I found myself checking for cyber and financial security.

Now Zenith holds the record of biggest bank in Nigeria and the most technology inclined of all; it should be noted that despite a number of undisclosed attempted cyber attacks on banks retaining top spot speaks of nothing but high quality security innovation.

I didn’t have more time to look into areas other than security before returning to my country but if physical evidence, records and recommendation from rival organisation are anything to go by then Zenith bank is definitely at the zenith of security in West African sub region.

Kweku NKRUMAH
Ghanaian Businessman