Service in some of the commercial banks in the country is really disgusting and something needs to be done urgently.

Month-end is a time when everybody is supposed to be happy to lay their hands on their hard-earned cash. It is a time when people pay bills and debts and travel to attend social events in different places.

But it has become common for Automated Teller Machines (ATM) for some banks to be out of service around month-end. Customers find themselves running around the city looking for functioning ATMs after pay day.

What is not fair is that when this happens, the customer has nobody to complain to and yet the same banks charge us for each and every service they provide.

The situation inside banking halls does not help either. Customers queue for hours for even simple transactions like depositing or withdrawing money.

They are not provided with ablution facilities and once inside the banking halls, one has to pray that the urge to go to the toilet does not strike.

Some banks have commercialised good service by dividing customers based on their wealth.

For instance, they have created divisions to give good service to people of a certain status while lesser mortals have to suffer in silence in lengthy queues moving at glacial speed.

The banks boast about this and have shifted their resources and focus to give better service to the wealthy.

Customers should be treated equally or at least nobody should be inconvenienced.

We appreciate what commercial banks are doing for us but we are appealing for improved service especially at month-end. Measures need to be put in place by the banks to ensure better and faster service in this era of improved technology.

Most transactions at the country should not take more than two minutes.

Perhaps it is time Botswana set-up a banking watchdog to protect the long suffering customers from further abuse by these insensitive and profit-mad financial institutions.