Ecobank Nigeria says their vision of using the agency banking program to promote entrepreneurship, provide employment opportunities, and support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) is bearing fruit as over 32,000 Nigerians, including former employees and retirees, have received the Program to sustain their daily life. According to the bank, not only were the agents able to advance their financial inclusion strategy in Nigeria, but they were also able to create wealth and enjoy financial freedom.
This is what Olanike Kolawole, Head of Agency Banking, Ecobank Nigeria said when she responded to media questions in Lagos. According to Kolawole, the customer experience is very good as customers can make the simple deposits, payments and transfers in their own neighborhood instead of spending hours traveling to a bank branch.
“These are all part of our efforts as a bank to help more Nigerians use entrepreneurship as the best strategy to fight poverty and fight rising unemployment. We are satisfied with our agency banking service providers, also known as our Xpress Point Agents, because we know that they play a crucial role in reaching people with and without bank details in society. They bring more people into the banking sector through their services. They conduct financial transactions on our behalf and earn commissions on every transaction processed. In addition, the Xpress Point is also a channel that is also used for the deployment of national government social intervention programs. ”She noted
Nike Kolawole cataloged the services offered by the Xpress Point agents as deposit, withdrawal, transfer, payment of bills, charging of talk time, transfer and account opening, among other things. She said the services are available to “sole proprietorships, partnerships, cooperatives, microfinance banks, companies with a large distribution network – such as gas stations, FMCGs, telecommunications companies, super agents, aggregators and unregistered companies such as small traders, hair salons” and others.
Ecobank has a bouquet of digital channels with solutions that aim to provide convenient, accessible and reliable financial services. The USSD platform: * 326 # enables an Xpress account and an Xpress Save account to be opened immediately. The bank’s mobile banking app, Ecobank Mobile, offers the option of generating a virtual card; This is convenient because customers are constantly using web payments for their purchases. There is also the Ecobank virtual card, which offers the flexibility and convenience of creating a shopping card that is not linked to a customer account but is fully capable of making online payments. The virtual card can also be shared with loved ones as a gift card for your own shopping
