At the close of trading on Monday, the All-share Index and Market Capitalization had dropped by 0.17% basis profit.

Notably, the All-share Index declined by 191.30 basis profit, from 115,529.54 points in the previous trading session, to close at 115,238.24 on Monday.

At the same time, the market capitalization dropped to N72.67 trillion down from the prior close of N72.79 trillion.

The decline was largely driven by sell-off and profit-taking in some large and medium-cap stocks across major sectors, particularly within the banking sector, which lost 3.98%. Some of the notable decliners include ACCESSCORP, NNFM, and FCMB, amongst others.

For the top performers, GUINEAINS led the chart with a 10 percent increase closing at N0.77, followed by ELLAHLAKES which rose by 9.93 percent to N4.79 per share, others include LEGENDINT which rose by 9.87% to N7.79 per share, ROYALEX grew by 9.68% to N1.02 per share, and FISON increased by 9.64% to N42.10 per share.

The top decliners for the day were led by NNFM which lost 10 percent to close at N101.30 per share, followed by CILEASING which shed 9.68 percent and depreciated to  4.20 per share, UPL lost 9.27 percent and closed at N4.99 per share, DEAPCAP lost 8.99 percent, fell to 0.81 per share, and LEARNAFRCA 8.43 percent to close at N3.80 per share.

The total value of trades was up by 5.75 percent, while the Total volume dropped by 33.72 percent. The banking sector equities experienced lots of market activities as top values with the highest trading volume were majorly from the banking sector. Leading the top trades by volume chart was ACCESSCORP which accounted for 12.86 percent of total trades.

ZENITHBANK led as the most traded stock in terms of value, accounting for 16.16 percent of the total value trades.

The Central Bank of Nigeria recently issued forbearance directives to banks, suspending dividend payouts, director bonuses, and new foreign investment aimed at strengthening the sector, leading to panic selling of banking stocks in the market in a profit-taking move.

1. Access Holdings,
2. United Bank for Africa (UBA),
3. Zenith Bank,
4. Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and
5. Wema Bank

Customers’ complaints in five banks in 2023 increased from 6.12 million to over 10 million in the previous year, representing 63.54%.

Analysis of the banks’ audited financial results filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited in recent weeks, by The PUNCH, more than half of the complaints came from the customers of one of the largest banks in the country.

The financial institutions reviewed in this report include Access Holdings, United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Wema Bank.

In the year under review, the customers’ complaints that AccessCorp, Nigeria’s biggest bank, received rose by about 81.26 per cent to 5,120,653 from 2,824,979 in 2022.

The financial services group revealed that it was able to resolve 5,092,619 complaints, with the amount claimed to be N273.04bn, out of which N2.07bn was refunded.

In dollar terms, Access Group recorded 28,801 complaints involving $2.79bn and resolved 28,277 of them out of which it refunded $2,161.

In transactions involving the British pounds sterling, the group received 328 complaints, with £134.40m claimed, and 326 of the complaints were resolved.

In euros, 335 complaints were handled and resolved within the year, with the amount claimed standing at €9.88m.

For UBA, customers’ complaints more than doubled to 2,962,339 in 2023 from 1,408,062 in the corresponding year, with N178.08bn claimed.

The group was able to resolve a significant portion of the complaints at 2,317,974 and N450m was refunded.

During this period, no refunds were made in dollars or pounds sterling.  However, the group said that 80 complaints were escalated to the Central Bank of Nigeria for intervention.

Days earlier, UBA unveiled a quick response solution code, called the ‘Scan to Resolve Complaint‘ Portal, aimed at enhancing satisfaction and swiftly addressing customers’ disputes.

The bank said that the ‘Scan to Resolve Complaint’ portal was a QR-code-based portal conceptualised by the bank to proffer timely solutions to customers’ challenges without them having to visit the bank branch.

Last year, Zenith Bank Plc saw the number of complaints go down by about 25.29 per cent to 355,210 from 475,499 in 2022 with N16.92bn claimed.

The lender had 169,797 pending complaints from 2022 and at the end of 2023, it was able to resolve 432,360 complaints and refund N15.486bn.

Similarly, GTCO’s customers’ complaints dropped in 2023 to 946,169 from 1,006,380 with about N5.016bn claimed.

It stated that the pending complaints brought forward were 9,217.

At the end of the year, 953,548 complaints were resolved with N277.45m refunded.

The financial group said that some of the outstanding complaints include dispense errors, uncredited NIP, erroneous transfers, etc.

In other currencies, GTCO customers claimed $202,617, £7,128 and €10.01m in complaints. Upon resolution, the group said that it refunded $2.816.

For Wema Bank, a tier 2 bank with tier 1 ambitions, the bank indicated that its customers’ complaints rose by about 54.03 per cent to 617,941 in 2023 from 401,179 in 2022.

Pending complaints from 2022 was 13,642 with N10.27bn claimed. At the end of the year, resolved complaints stood at 621,609 with about N11.26bn out of which N11.26bn was refunded.

The bank claimed that it “successfully reduced the average time taken to resolve customer complaints by 60 per cent compared to 2022, and the resolution rate increased from 93 per cent to 98 per cent demonstrating our commitment to improving the experience of our customers consistently and efficiently”.

Still on the bank customers’ complaints and according to Wema Bank, the number of customers escalating unresolved complaints was significantly reduced and escalation from regulatory bodies, including the CBN reduced by 38 per cent.

In October 2023, the complaints of customers of five banks rose by 117 per cent to 6,865,217 year-on-year as of June 2023 from 3,156,704.

Financial claims arising from the various complaints in the review period stood at N326.11bn, up by 289 per cent compared to N83.78bn paid in claims in June 2022.

The CBN, in 2022, directed all lenders in the country to expand their existing ATM help desk to handle all types of consumer complaints.

Providing a guideline for bank customers to make a complaint, the apex bank asked them to start from the bank, “You must first report the complaint at the bank/branch where the issue originated and then allow two weeks (it might be less in some banks) for the issue to be resolved (Source).

These already implies that all FUGAZ (First Bank, UBA, Access Holdings (Access Bank), and GTCO (GTBank) have now crossed the 1 trillion market capitalization for the first time.

Yesterday (Tuesday), AccessCorp and FBNH gained about N82bn and N93bn each to join the N1tn club bringing their market cap to N1.055tn and N1.026tn respectively. Earlier in December, FBNH had crossed the N1tn market cap mark but dropped by the next trading session. UBA, which entered the elite club with N1.022tn, appreciated to N1.114tn at the close of Tuesday’s trading.

Previously, Zenith Bank and GTCO were the only banking members of the SWOOT category, which is used to describe stocks worth over N1 trillion trading on the NGX. However, other banking stocks such as Stanbic IBTC and FBNH had previously made a brief foray into this category.

By crossing the N1trillion market capitalization level yesterday, (Tuesday), Access Holdings (ACCESSCORP), the parent group of Access Bank, as its stock rose by 8.39% to close at N29.70, thus taking the bank’s market capitalization to N1.056 trillion

Also, FBN Holdings rebounded to its highest level since December 6, 2023, as its stock appreciated by 10%, reaching a market cap of N1.027 trillion. The older members of the SWOOT category, such as: GTCO and Zenith Bank, closed trading on January 9 with a market cap of N1.42 trillion and N1.49 trillion, respectively.

It implies that in just six days of active trading on the floor of Nigeria Exchange, the NGX has appreciated by about 11.26%. However, the tier-1 banks have achieved even more remarkable returns in 2024.

Year to date, ACCESSCORP has gained 28.3%, FBNH has gained 21.4%, GTCO has gained 19%, UBA has gained 27.1%, and ZENITHBANK has gained 22.5%.