बैंकिंग विथ यूनियन बैंक ऑफ़ Cameroon

I have an account with Union Bank of Cameroon that I opened sometime in early 2006.I had put some money there while I was working in Douala and just left it as a savings.In case you are thinking about trying to get to it,it is not a lot of money so go try your luck somewhere else.When I opened the account the rep that I dealt with in the Douala branch was quite professional and the account was opened without any problems.All they needed from me was a copy of my national ID card which I always carry along with me.I had made just one withdrawal from the account since I opened it and that was sometime in June 2008.
Just today the 7th of May 2009 I left home in the morning to go do some work in the cybercafe and after about 30minutes or so of working the internet just went off.This is a constant problem with the internet cafes in some areas,the network seems to be down all the time and I just wonder how the people that are operating the place get to make any money at all.The attitude of the service people is that of "I don't care",the networks are down,tough luck to the customers.They do not seem to care at all is what I have come to conclude.For some reason that got me mad and I decided to go to the Union bank in Limbe to close out my account for no particular reason.I had called the branch in Douala about two days earlier where I opened the account and they said that it was okay for me to close the account in the Limbe branch.

This is what happened though once I got to the branch in Limbe.
I told the first rep that I met that I wanted to get my account closed and she said that I have to write an application letter to do so.That was strange but I decided to oblige and write the letter with a borrowed pen and paper from the bank.After writing the letter I handed it over and was called into one of the offices.The person I talked to told me that I cannot close the account in the Limbe branch,it has to be done in the original bank that I opened the account at.They did hand me a form though and said that I could withdraw some money from the account.I just thought to myself that I was going to just withdraw the whole amount from the account.I filled out the form,handed it over and then came a twist that I have to leave a certain amount in the account in Douala to keep it opened until I could close it from there.That is what I ended up doing.

The good points about the bank.
Overall, in the two branches that I have dealt with the representatives are friendly and they would listen to you and always try to help.They do finally give you the help they could provide in the branches,it just might take you some time to get everything done.I was in the bank for a total of about two hours for a transaction that I think should be done in maximum 30 minutes.

The bad points.
How come in this days of technology,you cannot just go to one of the branches and your account could be accessed using the computer.The complain that I got was that the program that would get that going is still in the making.

Conclusion.
Each time that I go to the bank there is also somebody that comes in with a whole lot of money to deposit and it is in cash.I always wonder what it is that I am doing wrong in life to not to able to be that guy with the large deposit.It happened a lot while I was in Douala and while I was in the bank today this two guys walk in,casually dressed and they had three huge envelopes filled with 10,000 francs CFA notes.I have to find out what this people do for a living.The branches in the various banks have to be linked by computers.There is always the bailout reason that this is Africa and things are not at that stage yet.I do not think that holds anymore.There is the internet and all types of communications devices available in this country and the banks have to be able to take advantage of that.