High Operating Cost: Access Bank Cuts Operating Hours In 83 Branches

As operating costs continue to rise due to inflation and high diesel prices, Access Bank has joined the league of commercial banks who have cut operating hours to save costs.

The bank in a notification entitled ‘Adjusted Closing Time for Select Branches’ to its esteemed customers containing the list of the branches and the states where they operate, Access bank urged its customers to consider processing most of their transactions via its digital channels.

“You can simply process most of your transactions via our digital channels, as a few of our Access Bank branches nationwide will be closed at 3 pm from the 29th of August, 2022,” Access Bank stated.

The bank in the email to customers at the weekend said it will be reducing operating hours in 83 of its branches nationwide. The branches will now be closing operations to customers by 3pm as against the previous timeline of 4pm effective today, Monday August 29, 2022.

According to the bank, while some of its branches will continue to operate between 8am and 4pm, its electronic channels would be open to customers 24hours everyday. It will be recalled that most banks had begun cutting short their operating hours due the high cost of operation occasioned by the soaring price of diesel which has so far risen above N800 per litre.

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GTCO, FirstBank and some others took such measures early in the year, adjusting its operating hours in response to the energy crisis.

Meanwhile, Head, Financial Institutions Ratings at Agusto&Co, Mr Ayokunle Olubunmi noted that more banks will be looking at the option of solar powered operations as they strive to reduce the impact of the soaring diesel cost on their operations.

“What banks are trying to do is how they can reduce the impact to the barest minimum. But despite that, the high cost of diesel is still going to have an impact and what the banks are trying to do is to actually reduce it. What has happened over the last three years is that most banks are trying to transitions into alternative power supply. Before now most banks rely solely on PHCN or diesel but banks are now bringing in solar panels into the mix, with this we are going to see more banks pushing that.”

Meanwhile, the current economic reality of surging inflation, energy cost, and naira depreciation among others are impacting the operations of corporate entities.

For example, Nigeria’s inflationary pressure hit a 17-year high of 19.64 per cent in July even as the price of energy (diesel) has risen to an all-time high of N800 per litre.

While Access Bank has yet to release its Q2 2022 result, a look at its unaudited Q1 result shows that the bank’s operating expenses rose by 23.63 per cent to N77.26 billion from N62.49 billion.

Though Access Bank did not state the reasons behind the adjustment of its operating hours, however, this might not be unconnected to the bank’s move to cut operating costs.

It might also mean that its banking transactions are shrinking because of the current economic realities brought about by inflation and high energy costs.