Ecobank Starts Rapid Transfer Back to School Campaign

Fri, Sep 26, 2014
By publisher
4 MIN READ

Banking Briefs

ECOBANK Nigeria said it has commenced its rapid transfer back to school campaign that will enable parents and guardians to pay their children and wards school fees in a fast and convenient way. Anthony Okpanachi, deputy managing director, Ecobank, said the back to school campaign was conceived to create the necessary awareness on the product. He explained that the product was available to customers and non-customers of the bank.

“The Rapid Transfer facilitates access to funds across the country as well as enabling money transfers to and from any of the 36 African countries where Ecobank operates. This is an Ecobank proprietary send and receive money transfer product available in all Ecobank branches in Nigeria. The product allows you to send and receive money where Ecobank has its footprint. The service was conceived out of the need to provide convenient, accessible, and reliable money transfer service for its retail and wholesale customers and non-customers,” he said.

The rapid transfer service, Okpanachi reiterated, was very suitable for trans-border traders, schools, students, travellers, parents, foreign nationals residing in Nigeria, churches and missions, embassies and consulates, regional airlines and transporters among others. “The uniqueness of the product is its swiftness in delivery and accessibility as transactions are concluded within five minutes at the receiving end. Transfers could be made in the form of cash to cash; cash to account; account to cash; account to account and cash pull.”

UBA Partners African Trade Insurance

Uzoka
Uzoka

THE United Bank for Africa Plc said it has entered into a partnership with the African Trade Insurance Agency, ATI, to ease the flow of credit to clients engaging in regional and international trade. According to a statement by the bank on Wednesday, September 24, the partnership was announced on Monday, in Nairobi, Kenya, after officials of both institutions signed the agreement to formalise the deal.

The agreement was signed by Kennedy Uzoka, chief executive officer, UBA Africa, and George Otieno, chief executive officer, ATI. Under the agreement, ATI will provide insurance cover for eligible UBA Group transactions with its unique range of political risk and trade credit insurance products. The risk mitigation services will provide an alternative to collateral for UBA’s corporate clients, who may otherwise face financial constraints in obtaining credit, while also protecting them against cross-border trade risks and a broad range of investment risks.

Uzoka said UBA is keen to boost inter and intra-African trade because of its capacity to accelerate development and integration across the continent. “Over the years we have supported our customers to grow their business network across Africa and internationally in pursuit of a more prosperous Africa. UBA’s partnership with ATI will ease the flow of credit to our customers and help them expand their businesses across the continent. Intra-Africa trade is estimated to be one of the lowest globally at just 10 percent of total trades on the continent. This is quite low when compared with intra-trade among the EU-27 at 70 percent, 52 percent for Asian countries, 50 percent for North American countries and 26 percent for South American countries. Africa’s commodities boom, natural resources and related government spending to revive infrastructure development is estimated to have generated 32 percent of Africa’s recent GDP growth, while the remaining growth came from sectors such as transportation, telecommunications and manufacturing,” he said.

According to the statement, UBA believes that all the sectors will benefit from expanded credit. UBA is banking on the need for financial services in these areas to support the continent’s ultimate growth with comprehensive retail banking services and trade finance for small and medium size enterprises.

— Oct. 6, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

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