Omodele Adigun
As African governments utilise digital platforms to give succour to their citizens via safety nets, there is going to be exponential increase in e-payment adoption across the continent, Ecobank Group CEO, Ade Ayeyemi, has said.
According to Ayeyemi, who disclosed this on Monday during the Blomberg virtual conference, Invest Global: Weathering Market Turbulence in the age of COVID 19, the governments’ action has helped to accelerate the acceptance of electronic payment among the people and also made them get accustomed to it.
He explained that COVID 19 has been accelerating financial inclusion on the continent as weaned people off old payment system..
His words: “Cashless society is accelerating in Africa through the pandemic. COVID 19 is the greatest accelerator of our time. We are going to have more and more of digital transactions.In one of the countries, banks were closed within 48 hours. People quickly switched over to ATM channel. Before COVID 19, 90 per cent of our transactions were digital, while the remaining 10 per cent was physical. But during COVID 19 (lockdown), we saw 95 pr cent of our transactions done through digital means, while only five per cent was physical where branches are still open.
“As governments are using digital platform to give palliatives to the people, the people are becoming accustomed to the digital platforms. It is cheaper, safe and delivered to the people at the price they can afford. Cash is bulky, it is more difficult to deliver to the people. COVID 19 is the greatest accelerator of adoption.Peopl have tasted it and they like it.”
Meanwhile, for the second time in two months, Ecobank Nigeria has hosted another set of trainees from its academy to a virtual graduation ceremony and they were automatically absolved into full time employment. The Ecobank Nigeria Management Trainees Batch 2 comprises 53 graduates who were trained at the Ecobank Nigeria Academy for 21 months. Thr bank had in May organised a virtual graduation ceremony for 57 graduate trainees.
Its Managing Director, Patrick Akinwuntan, said the bank’s deliberate policy to train and equip its workforce is in line with its transformation drive to make the bank the most preferred financial institution in the country, adding that it is also targeted to better serve its customers in a convenient and accessible manner.
According to him, Ecobank has also invested in a robust technology-based model which positions the bank to cope with current and future challenges, including the provision of convenient digital banking services to customers in a seamless manner across 33 countries on the continent.
“Our Mobile Banking app is unique as it’s a single App for the entire continent and our USSD *326# is very convenient. We have Ecobank Online for individuals; Ecobank Omniplus and EcobankOmnilite for corporate and SME clients respectively,” he said.
Our Agency banking Ecobank Xpresspoints brings banking to every neighbourhood. You can open an account in minutes on our Mobile platform while our POSs and ATMs are everywhere in the country”.