Modupe Gbadeyanka
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
For rewarding its Agency Banking partners, also known as Xpress Point Agents across the six geo-political zones of the country, Ecobank Nigeria has been applauded.
According to observers, the financial institution has taken a step to further deepen financial inclusion in the country as the beneficiaries and those who missed out will want to do more.
Recently, Ecobank Nigeria gave mouth-watering gifts to a total of 18 agents selected across the geopolitical zones of the country based on their transaction counts and value from January to September 2020.
The Head of Agency Banking at Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs Nike Kolawole, explained that it was expedient to recognise and reward agents across the country for their tenacity, also knowing that they are helping to drive the Ecobank’s financial inclusion strategy in Nigeria.
It was gathered that the winners were rewarded with 40-inch televisions while second and third winners went home with refrigerators and generating sets, respectively.
She added that the aim of the Xpress Point is to let every Nigerian and household have access to Ecobank services within their neighbourhood to provide easy banking services.
“We are happy with our Xpress point agents, knowing they are playing a critical role in helping us reach out to the unbanked and underbanked in the society.
“They are bringing more people to the banking space through their services. They carry out financial transactions on our behalf and earn commission on every transaction processed.
“The consumer experience is very good as customers can do simple deposit, payment and transfers in their own neighbourhood rather than travel for hours to a bank branch.
“The Xpress Point is also a channel that is also being used for the deployment of national social intervention programmes of the government,” she said.
Mrs Kolawole listed the services offered by the Xpress point agents as; cash in, cash out, fund transfer, bills payment, airtime recharge, remittance and account opening, among others.
She added that the services are available for “sole proprietors, partnerships, co-operative societies, microfinance banks, companies with large distribution network – like petrol stations, FMCGs, telecommunication companies, super agents, aggregators and unregistered businesses such as petty traders, hair salon and others.
“Most of the agents that benefited from the reward scheme expressed appreciation to the bank with a promise to contribute more to the agency banking of the bank.”
Meanwhile, Ecobank is already preparing for its digital financial inclusion summit on October 21 and according Mrs Kolawole, “These are all parts of our efforts as a bank to help more Africans embrace entrepreneurship as best strategy to tackle poverty and address growing unemployment.”
