Updating data at the CBAO: a requirement that suffocates some users…
In the busy streets of Dakar, the recent campaign to update Cbao (Grouge Attijari) banking data continues to provoke contrasting reactions. Some customers say they completed the process without difficulty, while others deplore the constraints associated with traveling to the agency and call for more digital solutions.
The afternoon sun beats down the Beaver dust, but the activity does not slow down. Amidst the din of street vendors and frantic honking of horns, a few stalls overflow with a profusion of colors. It is here, between two imposing rolls of shimmering bazin and Swiss embroidered placed on his counter, that Ndèye Fatou reigns over his fabric business. In her forties, with a haughty bearing and precise gestures, she calmly adjusts a muslin veil before interrupting a meticulous folding. In the aisle, the subject is still hot on the lips with the recent wave of updating of customer data required by the Cbao. Where others rebel, the trader prefers to stick to the facts. “Most of us had received this message asking us to go to the bank to update our data,” she says, looking straight ahead.
Intrigued by the approach, she immediately asked her manager for the reason, who told her that it was a strict obligation. She did not seek to philosophize. “I did it the next day. On the other hand, the colleagues I had warned were stubborn. Today, their accounts are blocked,” confides the trader.
It’s a clear diagnosis that Awa immediately qualifies, installed a few steps away in front of her ready-to-wear boutique. For the young woman, her neighbor’s reading grid ignores the pragmatic realities of the informal sector. “It’s easy to say when you have an agency close to the market,” she replies.
Awa also received the text message from the bank. But, in Castors, time has a price that the banking sector sometimes seems to ignore. Between the customers to attract, the stock to monitor and the constant fear of shortfall, the slightest absence can be fatal. “Interrupting my work to wait in line is equivalent to losing my customers,” complains the shopkeeper. For her, the banking institution lacked anticipation and agility in the face of the social reality of its customers. “The bank should have offered a simplified digital platform or extended evening hours. Not everyone has the luxury of having the flexibility to work around office hours,” says Awa.
A little further away, sheltered from the sun, under the shadow of a building, SG contemplates this ballet with the serenity of seasoned observers. This septuagenarian, a former education executive, calmly tells his rosary while scanning the tensions in the neighborhood. “I am fundamentally against this blocking of accounts. “It’s disrespectful to the customers,” he begins by asserting in a deep, calm voice.
But the former teacher does not indulge in blind indulgence and recalls the exact chronology of the facts: “You have to be honest; Warning text messages have been sent for some time.” For this privileged witness to Dakar life, the episode above all highlights a societal failing. According to SG, many people would rant on social networks swearing that they would not comply with the procedure. “In life, you have to learn to take responsibility for your actions and endure the consequences,” he advises.
The analysis resonated unexpectedly with Ibrahima. Leaning against the peeling paint of a shop, this young craftsman observes the scene with the perspective of a modern user. For him, this blockage is the symptom of a bureaucratic anachronism. “At a time when the State has audited the national file and where civil status data is digitized, requiring systematic physical presence is absurd,” he laments. For him, a secure application or a web portal would have been enough rather than unnecessarily congesting the capital’s agencies.
Despite the dilemma between managing daily work and having to queue at the counter, the situation takes an even more confusing turn for another category of users. Indeed, diligence and compliance with procedures have not always been enough to protect certain customers from inconvenience. Some users, convinced that they had done what was necessary on time to comply with the banking establishment’s requirements, had the very unpleasant surprise of discovering that their accounts suffered the same fate as those of latecomers. This is the bitter observation made by this other local merchant for whom the strict application of the instructions has resulted in a real professional impasse.
“However, I followed the instructions to the letter. From the first week after receiving the SMS, I organized myself to go directly to the agency in order to completely update my file and my supporting documents,” explains this customer, his voice full of incomprehension.
The controversy goes beyond the simple regulatory update of the Cbao. It outlines the divide in an urban society torn between the rigidity of financial institutions, the search for digital agility and the imperatives of informal life. On the one hand, those who see the rule as an indisputable principle, on the other, those for whom time is too rare a resource to be wasted in a queue.
Pathé NIANG
