One month after TechCabal reported that Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Nigeria’s cost-efficiency leader in commercial banking, is switching its core banking application, it told customers the upgrade was facing more delays. After sharing that it would close its 235 branches until 9 am on Monday, it extended that closure until midday.
“Following our recent notification on the transition to a new and robust suite of Finacle banking Application System, we would like to update you that this transition has taken longer than planned,” the company said in an Instagram post on Monday.
It confirmed TechCabal’s earlier reporting that GTBank had joined at least ten other Nigerian commercial banks that use Finacle. Group CEO Segun Agbaje confirmed the bank would make the technological change in July 2024, with sources claiming the bank’s management visited Infosys in India, bypassing any vendors.
As the upgrades entered the final stages, customers were warned of service disruption over the weekend, causing considerable frustration to 32.8 million retail customers. The bank holds more than N3.85 trillion in retail customer deposits.
Customers of top Nigerian banks have endured a torrid second half of the year, with technology changes and upgrades causing extended downtimes. Sterling Bank, for instance, switched its core banking application to SeaBaaS, leaving customers in the lurch for three weeks. Access Bank told customers last weekend that it was upgrading Flexcube, its core banking software. Tier-1 bank, Zenith also moved to a new core banking platform, Flexcube in September 2024.
