First Bank of Nigeria Limited has confirmed a service disruption affecting its key digital banking channels, making it unable for customers to access the platforms and complete transactions.
The oldest Nigerian bank disclosed this in a circular on Thursday, September 4.
It said the downtime is currently affecting transactions carried out on its FirstMobile, FirstOnline, and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), *894#, banking platforms.
“Please be informed that we are currently experiencing some downtime affecting transactions to other banks on FirstMobile, FirstOnline, and USSD platforms. Customers may therefore experience delayed or declined transactions,” FirstBank stated.
It assured customers that its technical team, in collaboration with partner service providers, is working around the clock to restore full functionality; however, without stating how long it will take to restore the banking services to normalcy.
“We regret the inconveniences this may cause and appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.
“Our team is working with our partners to restore services as quickly as possible, and we will provide updates once services are fully restored,” the bank added.
Pinnacle Daily can report that the service disruption comes barely two months after FirstBank introduced facial biometric technology on its mobile banking application, FirstMobile, in a bid to strengthen customer experience and enhance security.
The feature allows customers to enrol and activate their devices seamlessly without the need for a debit card.
Using advanced facial recognition and anti-spoofing detection, the innovation is designed to protect users against impersonation and fraudulent attempts.
The biometric update caters to a diverse range of users, including new customers without debit cards, diaspora customers, card-free users, and individuals with lost or expired cards.
In October 2024, FirstBank experienced a similar service disruption, which lasted for more than 10 days longer than the bank had anticipated, causing panic among its over 43 million customers.
At the time, the bank said it was transition to a cloud-based application.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
