It was a pathetic sight this morning at Kubwa Branch of First Bank in Abuja, capital of Nigeria, when an old woman who went to transact business at the country’s oldest bank wailed after being robbed of her money.

“They have taken my money! I am fainting . . . I am fainting . . .,” the woman said on phone to her daughter, who appealed to her to gather herself together and raced down to the bank to take her home.

The victim told sympathisers that she had come to the bank with N22,000 with the intention of making a withdrawal to complete the money she wanted to take to the market. However, a pickpocket made away with the money in the sweaty banking hall.

“The crowd was too much. Everywhere was filled and the air conditioner in the bulk room was not working. We stood on the queue until we got tired because they could not attend to us due to network failure,” said a News Express reporter who was at the branch to make a lodgement. The reporter said she had to leave without being able to transact the business that took her to the branch.

Bank officials were indifferent when the robbed woman and her daughter complained, saying the victim should have taken good care of her money.

One other disappointed customer said she once lost her bag at the same branch after putting it in the designated box outside the banking hall as advised by the security men.

News Express observed that the security men manning the doors leading into the banking hall allowed people to go in without proper scrutiny, a situation which might have made it easier for pick pockets to enter the hall.

First Bank had closed to the public last Thursday and Friday to enable it “upgrade to Finacle 10 banking platform” which the management said would “simplify customer transactions, support the latest database technologies as well as improve functional and operational capabilities on its network.”

It promised that “the upgrade aligns with the bank’s quest to ensure it reviews its IT infrastructure to be better positioned to offer efficient services to its over 7 million customers across the globe.”

•Photo shows First Bank CEO, Bisi Onasanya.