First Bank of Nigeria to Shut Down Operations from Tomorrow, to Upgrade Software

First Bank of Nigeria has announced that it will shut down operations from tomorrow, Thursday June 6, and reopen on Monday June 10, to upgrade its core banking application to Finacle 10 from Finacle 7, to ensure better and faster customer transaction. This move will affect millions of the bank’s customers, with over 700 branches nationwide. First Bank submits that “Point of Sale transactions and transaction alerts by Short Message Service will not be available, all card services, except Visa prepaid card, will not be available via Quick Teller and the Web. All transactions that will impact on the banking platform e.g. settlements, interbank (RTGS, NEFT, FIP) inflows, will not be available, but skeletal services would be available on its ATMs throughout the migration period until 5pm on Sunday, and would be restored at 6am on Monday.” Online banking services will also be available until 5pm on Sunday and be restored at 6am on Monday, while its mobile money services will be available throughout the migration period. CEO of the Bank, Bisi Onansanya in a statement said, “I write to thank you for your continuous patronage and inform you of our plan to upgrade our core banking application as part of the ongoing transformation of the bank. I am particularly excited at the prospect of this milestone as it represents the opportunity to significantly transform our service delivery to you in many respects, while also supporting our plans for the introduction of new and innovative products as we anticipate your every banking need. “This is a major project and on account of the technical requirements, we regret that there will be some disruptions to our services for about three days, while the upgrade is ongoing.”