First Bank To Shut Down Operations On Thursday

Customers of First Bank Limited may find it difficult to carry out some banking transactions from Thursday to Monday due to the decision to shut down the bank’s branches nationwide during the period.

The decision to shut down operations in order to facilitate the migration to Finacle 10 would affect the bank’s over 700 branches nationwide.
The shutdown, according to the bank, is to enable it upgrade its core banking application from Finacle 7 to Finacle 10, which will ensure easier and faster customer services and experience.
Apart from all the branches being shut, Point of Sale transactions and transaction alerts by Short Message Service will not be possible during the period. In addition, all card services, except Visa prepaid card, will not be available via Quick Teller and the Web.
First Bank said in an explanatory note, “All transactions that will impact on the banking platform e.g. settlements inter bank (RTGS, NEFT, FIP) inflows, will not be available.”
However, the bank said skeletal services would be available on its ATMs throughout the migration period until 5pm on Sunday, and would be restored at 6am on Monday.
Online banking services, according to the bank, will also be available until 5pm on Sunday and be restored at 6am on Monday, while its mobile money services will be available throughout the migration period.
The bank had notified its customers through SMS and email of the development and apologised for inconveniences that they might suffer as a result of the platform upgrade.
The Group Managing Director, First Bank, Bisi Onasanya, said in an open letter to the customers, “I write to thank you for your continuous patronage and inform you of our plan to upgrade our core banking application as part of the ongoing transformation of the bank.
“I am particularly excited at the prospect of this milestone as it represents the opportunity to significantly transform our service delivery to you in many respects, while also supporting our plans for the introduction of new and innovative products as we anticipate your every banking need.
“This is a major project and on account of the technical requirements, we regret that there will be some disruptions to our services for about three days, while the upgrade is ongoing.”
Mr Onasanya said only intra-bank transactions would be available on the alternative channels while the upgrade was going on, adding that the clearing of customers’ might also be slightly delayed but that all investments due on any transaction within the period would only be terminated when all services were restored without affecting the value dates or the value of accrued interests on such investments.
However, the decision is causing anxiety among the customers of the bank, who complained that the planned shutdown would further compound the problems they had been coping with lately in accessing the institution’s services.
For instance, customers have been complaining of not being able to draw cash from the bank’s Automated Teller Machines for sometime now, while money transfers to other banks from First Bank branches have been difficult in the last two weeks.

Source: Channels Television 

Senate rejects Jonathan’s nominee as PSC member •Confirms Okiro, 5 others

THE Senate, on Tuesday, rejected the re-nomination of Dr Otive Igbuzor (Delta State) to represent South-South on the board of the Police Service Commission (PSC).

It, however, approved the appointment of former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Mike Okiro, as the chairman of the commission, but with a call to him to reform the Nigeria Police.
Igbuzor was rejected three times by the majority of the senators present at the plenary in a voice vote called by the Senate President, David Mark.
Efforts by Senator Babafemi Ojodu to make the Senate reverse itself failed, as “Point-of-Order” raised was considered as coming too late.
While no reason was given for the rejection of Igbuzor, who was a former commissioner in the commission, it was gathered that his rejection may not be unconnected to his stance against government institutions and policies, including the National Assembly.
A human and civil rights activist, Igbuzor was once the secretary of Citizens’ Forum for Constitutional Reform (CFCR), a coalition of over 100 civil society organisations.
Senator Mark, however, said President Goodluck Jonathan could re-present Igbuzor for nomination if he was considered important by the Federal Government to be on the board of the PSC.
Confirming the nomination of Okiro as the chairman of the commission, Senator Mark asserted that the police was one of the numerous problems facing the country, adding that encounters with them had not been good.
“We want a police of our dream; police that truly can do police job; the police that can sort out crime and defend us and a police that is properly equipped to do their policing work very well.
“I believe that, to those of you who have encountered the police, it has not been a good encounter and I hope that Okiro and his team will bring visible and noticeable improvement to the Police,” he said.
Other nominees confirmed by the Senate included Mr Yakubu Mohammed (retired DIG), Justice Olufunke Adekeye (retired Justice of the Supreme Court), Aisha Lara Tukur, Mrs Comfort Obi and Chief Torngee Gem Toranyiin.

Written by  Dapo Falade - Abuja 

Source: tribune

Nigeria: Jonathan's Mid-Term Report Baseless, Lagos Tells Maku

By Gboyega Akinsanmi.

A battle line seems to have been drawn as the Lagos State Government Tuesday took a swipe at the federal government, saying the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan had nothing to report to mark its second anniversary in office.

This was contained in a statement issued by the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Aderemi Ibirogba, in reaction to the inflammatory comments allegedly made by the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, on the achievements of Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN).
Ibirogba, in the statement expressed disappointment that the minister could deny monumental achievements, which the he said Fashola's administration had recorded within a period of six years.
He added that the minister should have taken time to research into some of Fashola's performance, which he said the government had received accolades even from leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He explained that all Maku would have done was "to concentrate more on the achievements of the federal government if there was any and if there was nothing to report, he could still have done himself a world of good by keeping quiet than exposing himself to such ridicule through unguarded statements credited to him.
"One is not perturbed by his behaviour since it has become his stock in trade going by the way of his earlier outburst on the National Assembly for which he later had to apologise when the House of Representatives cautioned him."
The commissioner observed that the issue of environmental sanitation, which he said the minister raised apparently, betrayed his understanding of the pedestal for good governance in any society.
"It becomes apparent that the minister was befuddled by the state of development in Lagos, the nation's former capital that had been left to rot away but which the Fashola administration is taking to higher heights.
"That the BRT buses run on federal government roads is quite laughable. One may wish to ask that since the capital moved to Abuja, who has been maintaining most of the infrastructure left behind by the federal government.
"The questions are why has the Lagos-Ibadan road becoming daunting to the federal government and why has the federal government failed to replicate the BRT system in Abuja or all over the country."
He said the minister should have taken a trip to Lagos "to see the expansion of the Lagos-Badagry expressway into a 10-lane highway with ;ight rail and BRT lanes, the 39km Eti-Osa -Lekki-Epe Expressway, the recently commissioned cable-stayed bridge linking Lekki and Ikoyi communities."
He also urged Maku "to see the ongoing expansion of Mile 12-Ikorodu Road, greater attention to water transportation, the infrastructural facilities being provided all over Lagos and several other people-oriented programmes, before concluding erroneously that Fashola has not done anything in Lagos.
"Recently, President Jonathan was hosted alongside the former US President, Mr. Bill Clinton at the commissioning of the Eko Atlantic City where President Jonathan pledged that the federal government will replicate the project in other parts of the country and yet Fashola has done nothing.