The OPay account of Tomi Shayo (not real name), a Lagos-based point of sale (PoS) agent, has not been credited with the N60,000 transferred by a First City Monument Bank (FCMB) customer five months ago.

Shayo told FIJ that the FCMB customer, who had been owing her N60,000, wanted to pay his debt on November 2, 2022, when the transaction failed.

“He initiated the payment after he inserted his card into my POS machine. Though it showed transaction failed, FCMB deducted the money from his account. I saw the statement of account that showed the deduction,” said Shayo

Shayo said when the FCMB customer reported the issue at a branch of his bank, an official asked him to give the bank five working days to resolve it.

According to Shayo, the bank later told the customer the money was no longer in his account but with OPay.

“I went to OPay three times, and they gave me a document that showed that the money never got them. OPay said the money was still with FCMB. The guy and I went to FCMB, and they initially claimed that the money was not with them. But when we showed them the document, they said they would look into it.”

Shayo said she returned to OPay to know what she could do in such a situation and the digital financial institution advised her to go to FCMB alongside the customer to file for a chargeback

We did this on December 22, but there was no follow up at all. We went to four different branches of FCMB in Onipanu, Ikeja, Allen and Marina with respect to this issue,” she said.

She said the last time she went to FCMB’s head office in Marina, the head of customer care said the money left the FCMB account but never got to OPay.

“He said that the fintech company that served as an intermediary for transactions between POS and traditional banks would sort the issue. He said they would keep emailing the fintech platform, but to my utmost surprise, nothing has been done about the money since then.”

When FIJ contacted Rafiu Mohammed and Femi Hanson, the spokespersons of FCMB and OPay respectively, on Monday, the duo said the incident would be investigated.

Mohammed said, “The bank has commenced an investigation into the issue. I will update you when concluded.”

Hanson said, “I have shared with the teams, and they will investigate and share feedback. I will share with you as soon as I receive it.”

After FIJ contacted OPay, the company reached out to Shayo and informed her to ask the FCMB customer to tell his bank to provide the log code for the transaction.

The FCMB customer, however, has refused to go back to the bank due to the futility of the previous attempts to recover the money.

“This is the dilemma I am in right now. He’s saying he is not going to his bank anymore,” said Shayo.

When FIJ reached out to the FCMB customer on Wednesday, he confirmed the incident and explained that he had gone to his bank several times to ensure the money got to the PoS agent.

“In fact, I almost caused trouble at the Marina branch because I insisted they had to look into it. Then they told me that the transaction was successful at their end. They even said they had contacted OPay but got no response. I got tired of going there,” he told FIJ.

He eventually agreed to visit a branch of the bank in order to get the log code as requested by OPay