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.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Global financial payments giant, Visa, has made a strategic investment of $10 million in Nigerian fintech unicorn, Moniepoint, to expand its services and deepen financial inclusion on the African continent.
This development comes three months after Moniepoint raised $110 million in a Series C funding round that made the company a unicorn.
With the new play, Visa joins other investors, including Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, Verod Capital, Lightrock, QED Investors, Novastar Ventures, British International Investment (BII), FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), Global Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst as equity partners.
This partnership will combine Moniepoint’s local expertise and innovative business model with Visa’s global resources and capabilities to offer payment solutions to businesses and entities.
Moniepoint provides banking and payment services to small and medium businesses and retail banking. It is one of the market leaders in Nigeria’s agent banking space, with over 300,000 POS agents and has processed billions of transactions since it was founded in 2015.
The new Visa’s investment will further help Moniepoint expand its services and deepen financial inclusion on a continent that still has a comparatively low rate of financial services adoption.
Moniepoint will leverage Visa’s Cybersource system to gain better visibility into transactions. Additionally, it plans to integrate with Visa Direct for remittances and money transfers as it looks to expand into markets within and outside Africa.
Speaking on the move, Mr Tosin Eniolorunda, Founder and Group CEO of Moniepoint said, “Visa’s backing is a strong endorsement of our vision to digitize and support African businesses at scale.
“We aim to deepen financial inclusion, enabling SMEs to access the tools and resources they need to thrive in an increasingly digital economy.”
On his part, Mr Andrew Torre, Regional President, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Visa, noted that, “Moniepoint has built an impressive platform that directly addresses the needs of Africa’s SMEs, a critical segment in enabling economic development.
”By making financial services and digital payments more accessible and efficient, Moniepoint is helping transform how businesses operate in Nigeria and beyond.
“We are excited to support their next phase of growth and innovation,” he added.
By Dipo Olowookere
Efforts are being made by the management of a rapidly growing financial technology (fintech) company,
Bankit Microfinance Bank (MFB), to grow its loan and gaming services.
The firm said this is one of its targets for 2025 to solidify its position as a leading platform for comprehensive, simplified banking activities after it recorded remarkable growth in 2024 with different milestones as a result of its competitive edge and cutting-edge technology.
The digital financial services provider said it was already talking to its various partners on how to ensure customers get more access to credit facilities for different needs.
It said nothing would be spared to revolutionise digital banking in Nigeria, especially with a focus on innovation, customer protection, and financial inclusion.
Last year, Bankit MFB, within its first few weeks of operations, successfully registered over 50,000 users on its platform, a testament to its innovative simple banking approach to digital banking.
This year, the small lender has an ambitious plan to increase this by 900 per cent to a record 500,000 businesses in 2025.
Business Post gathered that in 2024, the financial institution recorded impressive transaction values, exceeding N100 million, with an impressive 90 per cent transaction success rate.
Since joining the business, it has introduced web banking and other innovative banking products, with more in development.
With the financial services sector not immune to fraud, Bankit MFB said it prioritises the protection of customers’ funds, expressing its commitment to diversifying its digital services to enhance customer experience.
Bankit MFB is a financial institution licenced to operate in the country by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which is dedicated to providing innovative, customer-centric financial solutions to individuals and others.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, launch a foreign exchange (FX) code designed to boost the integrity of the market.
A statement from the banking sector regulator on Wednesday said the FX code would be unveiled at its headquarters in Abuja next week.
It explained the forex code will serve as a guideline for the ethical conduct of FX dealers in the Nigerian forex landscape.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria has approved the release of the Nigerian Foreign Exchange (FX) Code as a guideline to the banking industry to promote the ethical conduct of Authorised Dealers in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market.
“The bank will formally launch the code at the CBN Head Office Auditorium, Abuja, on Tuesday, January 28, 2025,” the statement read.
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