Banking
Unity Bank Promotes Savings Culture With New App for Children, Teens
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A new mobile application designed to empower users, particularly children and teenagers, to achieve their financial goals, is to be launched by Unity Bank Plc.
The lender’s upcoming app will provide an engaging platform for setting savings goals, tracking progress, and building healthy financial habits.
According to the chief executive of Unity Bank, Mrs Tomi Somefun, the app will equip students with tools to set SMART financial goals, understand the power of compound interest, and build financial safety nets through savings and prudent money management.
Speaking at an event in Calabar, Cross River State to mark the 2024 World Savings Day, Mrs Somefun, represented by the bank’s Chief Compliance Officer, Mrs Patricia Ahunanya, said the decision to create the application was to promote a savings culture and enhance financial literacy among young Nigerians.
She emphasised the importance of instilling good financial habits early in life, declaring that, “Financial literacy is the foundation of a secure future.”
“By teaching students to distinguish between needs and wants, budgeting, and embracing delayed gratification, we empower them to take charge of their financial journeys.
“The new app will serve as a practical tool to support these lessons and help young Nigerians build a culture of savings,” the banking executive stated.
Business Post reports that the move by Unity Bank aligns with the financial inclusion strategy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which encourages young Nigerians to embrace financial literacy early.
World Savings Day is observed in Nigeria as an initiative of the CBN, Bankers Committee and Junior Achievement Nigeria to drive financial inclusion with the vehicle of Financial Literacy Training which is held in secondary schools across the country.
It is celebrated annually on October 31 to promote the importance of savings and financial awareness globally.
At the training session in Calabar, one of 16 held simultaneously across secondary schools in Nigeria, participants were exposed to simulations on earning, budgeting, spending wisely, and understanding the principles of borrowing and saving.
Unity Bank’s representatives guided the students through interactive discussions, encouraging them to set financial goals and cultivate habits that support long-term financial stability.
Banking
Ecobank Assures Customers of 24-Hour Digital Banking Access at Yuletide
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Customers of Ecobank Nigeria Limited have been assured of seamless digital banking services during the year-end festivities but warned to remain vigilant against fraudsters during this time.
The lender in a statement said customers would continue to enjoy uninterrupted banking solutions throughout the holiday season through Ecobank cards, the Ecobank Mobile app, USSD code *326#, Ecobank Online, Ecobank OmniPlus, Ecobank Omnilite, EcobankPay, Ecobank RapidTransfer, ATMs, and PoS terminals.
The Head of Consumer Banking at Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs Adeola Ogunyemi, highlighted the bank’s long-standing commitment to digital transformation, which aims to improve customer experience and provide alternative access to banking services.
Focusing on the Ecobank Mobile app, she noted that it offers a convenient, round-the-clock banking experience, allowing customers to perform transactions anytime, anywhere, directly from their mobile devices.
Available for download on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, the app enables users to manage accounts, send money, pay bills, buy airtime, pay merchants, and send money across the 33 countries where Ecobank operates.
Businesses also benefit from seamless transactions during the holiday season through the Ecobank Omni Lite app. Designed to enhance productivity and streamline cash flow management, the app offers account services, payments, collections, liquidity management, and customizable reports.
The app supports faster processing of instructions, including mass payments, with customizable system settings such as language and time zone preferences.
Mrs Ogunyemi concluded by reaffirming Ecobank’s ongoing efforts to deliver convenient digital banking solutions, ensuring that individuals can easily open and manage bank accounts, make payments, and send remittances, all through the Bank’s wide range of self-service options.
Banking
We’re Committed to Partnerships to Drive Sustainable Growth—Access Bank
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The chief executive of Access Bank Plc, Mr Roosevelt Ogbonna, has expressed the commitment of the company to building partnerships that drive sustainable growth.
Speaking when the lender hosted the President of Germany, Mr Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Lagos last week, he said the organisation will always leverage its deep expertise in cross-border banking and market integration to the advantage of its customers.
“Nigeria’s position as Germany’s second-largest trading partner in Africa reflects the mutual benefits of this relationship.
“By leveraging our deep expertise in cross-border banking and market integration, Access Bank is committed to building partnerships that drive sustainable growth, innovation, and economic advancement across the continent,” Mr Ogbonna said while addressing stakeholders at a roundtable organised to welcome the German leader.
Last week, Mr Steinmeier made his first official visit to Nigeria and was welcomed by President Bola Tinubu.
President Steinmeier’s visit showcased Germany’s commitment to fostering economic partnerships in the region.
His Lagos agenda featured a landmark visit to Access Bank, as well as engagements with Nigerian startup founders and German-Nigerian business representatives to explore opportunities for trade and investment.
A central feature of the engagement at Access Bank was a business roundtable hosted by Access Bank’s leadership team and its German Desk.
The roundtable brought together German and Nigerian stakeholders, with discussions focused on two key areas: finance and energy, both of which are crucial to bolstering economic growth and innovation in the region.
President Steinmeier also received remarks from Roland Siller, CEO of DEG (German Development Bank), who elaborated on the financial synergies and products DEG provides to German and Nigerian businesses alike.
Access Bank’s German Desk, led by Sebastian Barroso da Fonseca, marked its sixth anniversary this year and has become a cornerstone for German and European businesses operating in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Desk has provided critical support to over 100 clients, offering end-to-end financial solutions, including local funding facilitation, cash management, and seamless repatriation of funds to corporate headquarters. With operations spanning Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, South Africa, and beyond, the Desk has played an instrumental role in enabling businesses to navigate complex financial landscapes in Africa.
The engagement concluded with a Networking Reception at Access Bank’s headquarters, where delegates and stakeholders had the opportunity to engage and strengthen ties further.
Despite global challenges, Africa remains the fastest-growing economic region, with its GDP rising by 30 per cent over the past decade and average annual growth rates exceeding 5 per cent.
As a key player in the continent’s economic outlook, Nigeria continues to attract interest from global investors, and Germany has emerged as a critical economic partner in this regard.
Access Bank has strategically positioned itself as a gateway for trade and investment, leveraging its growing international footprint across 24 countries in Africa, Europe, and Asia to facilitate cross-border collaboration.
Banking
Ecobank, Afreximbank Simplify Trade, Compliance for African Businesses
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The duo of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Ecobank Group has joined forces to enable African businesses to benefit from seamless shared services.
Based on the deal, the two organisations will integrate their respective platforms, the Single Market Trade Hub of Ecobank and the MANSA Digital Repository Platform of Afreximbank for smooth trade and compliance.
It was gathered that users of the Single Market Trade Hub would easily leverage MANSA’s comprehensive database for efficient know-thy-customer (KYC) and customer due diligence (CDD) checks while MANSA platform users would, in turn, be able to directly connect to the Single Market Trade Hub to explore trade opportunities to expand their businesses across Africa.
This collaboration will enable Ecobank and Afreximbank to provide a central solution to the key challenge of KYC compliance and access to business across 35 countries in Africa.
The improved interoperability is expected to further streamline cross-border trade and compliance in Africa, fostering greater financial and economic integration on the continent.
The Ecobank Single Market Trade Hub connects registered businesses across Africa on a single platform, helping them benefit from opportunities in the unified market of 1.4 billion people created by the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
It serves as a one-stop repository for the AfCFTA by providing small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) and corporates with insights about the agreement while its online match-making feature enables importers and exporters to upload their profiles and showcase goods and services they offer, or wish to source, with the aim of finding partners within Africa.
Once a match is found, connections are made via the platform and the transaction can be concluded by leveraging Ecobank’s trade and payment solutions in 35 African markets.
The MANSA Digital Repository Platform is a one-stop-shop for due diligence matters on all African entities.
As a centralised digital repository, MANSA seeks to eliminate information asymmetry and to increase intra-African trade and trade with the rest of the world.
It drives and promotes good governance culture among African SMEs and creates visibility for their businesses while also supporting African entities to expand, diversify and add value to their export products at both the local and international levels.
Entities onboarded unto MANSA are allotted an Africa Entity Identifier (AEI) code which enables them to leverage other Afreximbank products and initiatives.
MANSA is also a key digital solution at the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG) marketplace which houses a suite of digital platforms designed as a single window to enable Afreximbank to better deliver on its mandate, providing critical services to support and promote intra-African trade and the implementation of the AfCFTA.
The platform enables African entities to accelerate their business activities at the ATG marketplace by working with verified information on trusted counterparties.
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