Wasiu Oseni, a car dealer, has accused Kuda, a digital-only Nigerian bank, of withholding N42,000 on his account since December 2021.

Oseni told FIJ that he has been unable to withdraw the said amount from his Kuda account ever since.

“I was very delighted when my brother sent that money to me on December 2, 2021. It was a loan I had given him a long time ago. However, I experienced a mood swing almost immediately when I tried making a transfer from my Kuda account but I couldn’t,” said Oseni.

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“I kept receiving messages saying I had insufficient fund in my account. Before the incident, Kuda had once sent a statement of account to me, saying someone had used my ATM card to make withdrawals from my account.

“I found the message absurd because when the message was sent, I did not not even have any amount in my account. So, there was no way anyone could have withdrawn from an insufficiently funded account.

“The only significant event I could say happened during that period was the fact that I had lost that card a long time ago.”

Oseni said Kuda had placed a restriction on his account since December, 2021.

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When Oseni contacted Kuda Bank Customer Service on the matter, he was told that a background check would be conducted.

During the conversation, he was also asked to send the date of the transaction, the amount and the session ID.

Oseni would later receive a message that reads:

“Zenith, our card settlement partner recently sent a message to all banks to help them recover the money from undebited payments made with your Kuda MasterCard. Unfortunately, the message was sent without our consent. To correct this error, we placed a lien on your account to cover the amount that was debited. We will reach out to you by email in the next 48 hours to give you details of the exact transaction so that you can confirm them and give us the approval to debit your account.”

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Wasiu quickly responded saying he had never carried out any transaction with his debit card. He also indicated that he had lost the card since May last year.

“Apart from all this, my account has not even been funded for a long time. So, how is that even possible?” Oseni said.

Kuda promised it would reach out to Zenith Bank for further investigation.

However, Oseni has not been able to access the money in his account.

FIJ sent an email to Kuda’s customer care desk for comments, but got a response saying the affected customer should reach out to them on his own.

However, Oseni said all his ‘reaching out’ in the last four months has been fruitless.