Airtel named customer friendly operator of the year

I paid particular attention to this news because last saturday afternoon i was able to make series of airtel - to -airtel calls after doubling my initial credit recharge, using the *234# code.
I don't understand well what the difference between the TalkMore A/c and the 5x A/c really is but i was delighted to find out that after i ran out of credit on the TalkMore A/c, the 5x A/c had about N600 waiting to be used. As if it would disappear if i don't hurriedly use it, i dialled the airtel number again and much to my pleasant surprise it connected.
I already gave Airtel this award on saturday , indeed they have some 'bespoke value-offerings' going on right now.
I don't know if the experience is the same with the other network providers. It would be good to know as it can only be to the advantage of the average Nigerian gsm consumer. http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/news-headlines/item/16634-airtel-named-customer-friendly-operator-of-the-year

While i had to make a payment

I have always been impressed by the service i receive at Gtb but today First bank showed good stuff which i may have taken for granted. Did you ask what happened?

Well, i had need to transfer a certain sum of money from Gtb to a vendor's account in another bank and i was told that it would get there the next day at 4pm ( i got there by 3:00pm). This was not good enough because the vendor will not supply the hardware next day unless he receives the money before 12 noon same day.

Then it occured to me that i could try to do similar transfer from my First bank account and for the good reason of having enough fund in that account to pay up in one installment.

Much to my surprise, i was told that i could do an instant payment transfer (which will get to the vendor immediately).With that i sought to be educated on the difference between the two modes of transfer by the two banks. Then i realised that Gtb was going to do a NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer ) while First bank had offered an Instant funds transfer system.

NEFT is an e-payment platform that takes a minimum of 24hrs to be effective because it has to go through clearing process while Instant funds transfer is instant, less than 2mins to be effective. Though one of the benefits of NEFT is that any payment credited to the beneficiary’s account is a cleared item i.e there is no possibility of the payment being reversed for insufficient funds, drawers confirmation, irregular signature or any other reasons associated with cheques, i still beleive that a well rounded service should offer the other options.
Going back to Gtb to find out why i have to do NEFT when i had explained that its urgent, they said it is to encourage customers to embrace internet banking (by use of a 'token'). Then i asked, what if i am a business man who is not internet savvy? And the teller smiled and said i don't look like such a person. Besides, i discovered that there were more charges to a NEFT transfer than there is for an Instant funds transfer.
I think its not a good reason to say customers are being encouraged to use internet banking (at this point i can imagine some of the traders asking their kids for help thereby risking important information).
I like Gtb in other ways but First bank did it for me today.