Veteran Nollywood actor and a onetime presidential aspirant, Ayo Lijadu berated Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, otherwise known as GTB, for what he described is lack of customer friendly environment within the bank.
The actor whose most recent and popular acting job is playing Shila Girdia’s father on the most popular TV soap opera on TV, Tinsel, narrated what he had faced in the hands of GTBank, even as a credit worthy customer of the bank for the last 25yrs of his life.
Narrating his ordeal with the bank, Pa Ayo Lijadu says, “I have been banking with GTB for more than twenty-five years, and I can say with every confidence that I am credit worthy.
For the past eight years, apart from other sundry incomes from other side hustles, they have been accepting an average of five hundred thousand naira, (500k) every month without fail into my salary account with them from my regular job. Cumulatively, therefore, since the past eight years of my banking with GTBANK, (leaving out the rest seventeen years), at least 48 million naira of my money had been lodged in that bank. 48 Million Naira. Let’s make that 50 Million Naira for a round figure”.
He added, “All these years I have been banking with GTBank, I had never asked for nor received any loan facility from my bank, which should be my natural right so to do. That is part of the benefits that bank customers who are credit worthy should be entitled to, as of right.
“However, in recent times, since about two years ago, each time I needed an urgent facility from my bank to meet an urgent need, even as small as one hundred thousand naira, (100k), as salary advance, or quick credit, they turn me down as being ineligible by reason of my age, (over 60 years).
“You received 50 million naira, but cannot give out 100 thousand naira in time of urgent need?
“You cannot give a Sixty-Eight years old man a bank facility, which by all other criteria, apart from age, he is eligible for, but you are not ashamed to collect over 600k every month for the past one year from the same old man. Even if I were to ask for a facility of Two (2) million naira, so long as I have the collateral for it, (of which I have more than five times of that value in landed property), and was prepared to put down, it should be an automatic approval.
“Why are the elderly so disrespected, disdained, and discriminated against in this country by institutions that are expected to support them and provide them as much succour as possible in their elderly age?
“By telling me that my age disqualifies me from getting a loan, (which by all other considerations attached to having a healthy bank account history and collateral I am eligible for), you’re telling me that I may die before I can pay back my loan.
“That is not a good insinuation, (whether directly or indirectly), directed at someone whom you use his money on a regular basis to trade with. The thought itself can be psychologically devastating.
“GTBank, are you wishing me dead any time soon?”