BOA Mobile, the mobile banking application of Bank of Abyssinia, which boasts 100K+ downloads on Play Store, has been serving customers by enabling them to perform almost all of their banking transactions from the palm of their hands, from local money transfer to US Visa payment. A new version of BOA Mobile was released on February 17, 2023 with the goal of UI/UX improvement, easy activation, and biometric authentication.
Following the bank’s recent update on its app, users have complained about being unable to access their accounts, execute transactions, or use other financial services. The reports also include the app crashing regularly, making transactions challenging and log-in tough. They’ve also mentioned that the app sometimes freezes and stops functioning during transactions, such money transfers, and that it displays the wrong payment titles. The bank’s new mobile banking application hasn’t met consumers’ expectations and is generating delays and interruptions.
“Please update the app. The previous version was much more stable, fast, and reliable. This version takes forever the app to load and then it freezes when you wake the screen from inactivity, and ETSwitch and other transfer options don’t work anymore,” complains a recent comment left by a user in the app’s Play Store comment section.
Another reviewer goes, “I am finding it difficult to transfer money to my TeleBirr account, and it takes time to load every time I try to open anything.”
BOA informed Shega in a letter “Recent consumer feedback has made clear the inconveniences brought on by our recently upgraded core banking system. We fully recognize that such problems are possible during the stabilization phase of fundamental system improvements, which can result in downtime for up to 10-15 days after deployment.”
“However, we proactively informed our customers about the upgrading process beforehand, and we formally apologized via our owned media channels for any inconvenience the update may have caused. We are still committed to providing a seamless user experience when using our digital services, thus we have created an additional channel that is open at this time,” the Bank added.
In addition, the Bank stated that they are actively addressing the upgrade’s problems and have enlisted the assistance of seasoned Temenos employees as well as a consulting firm to provide further assistance. Also, they have an internal senior technical staff that is in charge of fixing the issues.
There have been reports of similar mobile banking and liquidity-related challenges in the Ethiopian banking sector with Bank-to-Bank (RTGS/ETSwitch) transfers unable to go through creating backlogs of uncompleted money transfer requests in some of the private banks in Ethiopia in recent weeks.
Source: Shega