Customers of Guaranty Trust Bank reported that transfers sent to their accounts were not appearing on Thursday, raising fresh questions about the reliability of the lender’s digital services as parent company GTCO grapples with slower earnings growth.
MoneyCentral was told by a GTBank customer-care representative that a system-wide upgrade could take 24 to 48 hours for incoming funds to reflect in customers’ accounts.
That is a reported customer-service explanation, not a verified timetable for resolving every affected transaction. The extent of the disruption, the number of customers affected and whether the underlying payments had settled could not be established from the accounts available.
One frustrated customer criticized the experience and pointed to Nigerian fintech rivals OPay and Moniepoint as examples of the responsiveness customers now expect. The comparison captures the reputational risk for established banks: when an incoming transfer is not visible, customers may be unable to use money they expect to have, regardless of where the delay originates.
Reliability Meets Growth Pressure
The service complaints come as GTCO faces a separate challenge in its core business. Group profit after tax fell to ₦414.2 billion in the first half of 2026 from ₦449.0 billion a year earlier, while earnings per share declined to ₦11.18 from ₦13.59. Customer loans and advances were ₦3.147 trillion at June 30, little changed from ₦3.132 trillion at the end of 2025.
GTCO drew about 66% of interest income from placements and investment securities, versus roughly 34% from loans, according to the analysis supplied for this report. With asset yields slipping to 13.7%, the group has limited loan growth to offset weaker returns on other interest-earning assets.
What Remains
For GTCO, the immediate test is whether affected customers see their balances updated within the timeline reportedly given by customer care—and whether the bank provides a clear explanation if delays persist.
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