Making a Complaint in Nigeria
If there is one thing Nigerians know how to do, it is to complain! We complain about any and everything – the government, the roads, the police, the economy, our family, schools…everything! And do we have good reason to complain about all these things? Oh, yes! We definitely do.
The problem is that, most Nigerians only complain, they never act! Last year, in November 2015 when the Central Bank of Nigeria implemented the Biometric Verification Number (BVN) directive, thousands of bank customers were locked out of their bank accounts. This was for various reasons, but one of the many reasons was failure of the bank to either properly link the customer’s bank account or fail to upload the customer’s BVN details on their systems after the customers had completed all they had to do on their own part.
Naturally, as a platform created to assist Nigerians facing legal issues, we decided to share an article detailing steps on how to make a complaint and even including a free template which people could use to complain. We got a lot of responses and thanks from that exercise, however a few weeks later when we began contacting people to find out what stage they were with their complaints, almost all of them said they had decided not to complain again…that the situation had been fixed, and they would ‘leave them to their conscience’ or ‘leave them to God’…yup, that is right, customers suffered due to ineptitude of banks, they complained on social media and in newspapers, we gave them tools to complain through the proper channels…they decided to leave the banks to God.
Why do we complain about bad service?
Yes, it is to voice our dissatisfaction and frustration, but ultimately the real reason for making a complaint is to drive the right behaviour. We make complaints to ensure that the person/company takes steps to prevent it happening again, and the best way to do this is to ensure that you always make a formal complaint.
A formal complaint serves two purposes – firstly it conveys your dissatisfaction with the level of service received and states what you want the company to do to make amends, and secondly (and more importantly) it creates an official paper trail of correspondence which is essential if you intend to take the matter further by reporting to a regulator, or even suing the company. Whatever scenario that unfolds, having a formal complaint is always the way to go.
Whenever you are recipient of a bad service in Nigeria, what you need to do is complain AND make a formal complaint. On our part, we will do all we can to make the process smooth, we have therefore provided some free information and tools for you.
Tools for making Complaints
If you would like to make a complaint against a Police Officer in Nigeria, you can read our article on how to make a complaint here.
If you would like to make a complaint against your bank in Nigeria (any Bank in Nigeria), you can read about the process here – and we even created a free online automated tool that helps you create a template complaint letter, check it out here.
What about bad products or services? We have you covered there, an article about how to make a complaint about a bad product or service is here.
Upset with your mobile network provider? Not a problem, we’ve got a free online template that can help you make a complaint here.
Finally, we have free online tools for making a claim for compensation for delayed domestic flights and for delayed international flights.
*A version of this article was first published on BellaNaija.com
Thank you for reading this article, we hope you have found it useful. If you have please share with your network using one of the share buttons below.
DO YOU NEED A LAWYER?
Request a Legal Assessment
DO YOU NEED FREE LEGAL SUPPORT ?
This is for people who are unable to afford a lawyer
Get Free Legal Support
We hope you have found this information helpful. Please note that this information is provided for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice. No lawyer-client relationship is formed nor should any such relationship be implied. This answer is not intended to substitute for the advice of a qualified lawyer. If you require legal advice, please consult with a qualified lawyer.