Dear Editor,
I want bring to your attention that Zambian banks are one of the worst in the world. I have moved around few countries around Europe and America and still can’t understand why Zambian banks still exploit their customers.
Firstly for anyone to open a bank account someone has to have a recommendation letter from an already customer of that particular Bank? And if it happens that don’t know anyone who has an account with that bank then its practically impossible for you to open up a bank account. Why is this condition there? In every country I have been to Europe and America that is not the case, any one who has proper identification documents is free to open up an account with any bank of their choice.
Secondly the issue of Charging unreasonably for ATM services. I understand Banks have far huge sources of income besides the so called ATM service charges. How can your bank charge you for using their ATM? I must state that I have not seen any bank in any high-income country that does this. Then why should a low or medium income Zambian bank charge its customer with a relatively lower income? Though I have not done banking but I think this is exploiting Zambians.
The only charge you get in the other countries for withdrawing using an ATM of another bank is just around $0.5 cents about KR2.50 in Zambian Kwacha.
But here in Zambia why would you charge your customer KR25 for withdrawing from your own ATM? Then how much will you charge your customer for withdrawing from another Bank’s ATM?
The other ridiculous charges that you Zambian Banks claim are the monthly service fee? I’m not saying there no other Banks in Europe or other Countries that charge the monthly service fee. But I never came across any bank that was charging the monthly service fee besides Citi Bank that had a monthly service fee of about $5 equivalent to KR25.00for a special kind of an account. In-fact most of the commercial banks actually pay you for just leaving some money in your account.
You politicians out there reading this you know it yourselves, even you politicians at Zambian embassies you are aware of this but you have remained mute. That’s why you are at embassies. You are there to copy development and take it home an not just take tea and facebook in your offices.
Richard