Eromosele Abiodun
In a bid to ensure that its customers enjoy smarter, more efficient, effective transactions and in line with the new normal in view of the COVID-19 protocols, Baobab Micro Finance Bank over the weekend in Lagos launched for new e-channels.
The channels – quick savings, which is known as USSD; debit card; Paydirect Branch and an App, were premiered during the bank’s annual customers’ forum held via Zoom.
Speaking at the event, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Dr. Kazeem Olanrewaju, said the bank would continue to invest in technology to create value for customers.
He said the bank has met all key ratios required by regulators despite the pandemic adding that the bank has disbursed N16 billion to its customers.
The bank, he added, has remain profitable adding that it has consistently grown its deposits, which moved from N8 billion to N11 billion this year.
He also disclosed that the bank has since the beginning of the year added an average of 2000 customers on monthly basis.
While assuring customers of the banks determination to ensure that they stay in business, he said the bank during the COVID-19 lockdown restructured its customers’ loans and reduced charges.
On the e-channels, he said, “We are basically premiering four new products. We have also partnered with reputable financial technology companies to designed platforms tailored to the needs of our customers. The first of the channels is our quick savings channel, which is known as USSD. For our USSD, the magic code is *322 *348.We have partnered with Interswitch to come up with this transactional platform.
“With this, you can do funds transfer from the comfort of your home or anywhere, you can do funds transfer, make balance enquiries, buy airtime and pay bills. We are also introducing our Baobab verve card known as Baocard, it is a debit card that allows you to do financial transactions from the comfort of your plastic card.
The cards are linked to our customers account at Baobab and as our customers do their transaction, their account with us is automatically debited and for every transactions you do you are going to get notifications.”
With the card, he said customers can do cash withdrawals at an ATM, buy airtime at ATM or wed service, make bills payment.
“Our cards are multi channels meaning customers can use it across a number of platforms. We have also partnered with commercial banks to introduce what we call the Paydirect Branch.
This channels is a multi-account and multi bank collection solutions, it basically allows you to go to any participating Paydirect commercial bank in Nigeria, at any of their branches and make a direct credit into your Baobab account. The beauty of this is that our customers do not need to look for our own branches to do their transactions like loan repayments or do deposits into your account.
“We have also launched our mobile app, a digital channel that customers can operate with their smart phones. All they need do is download the app and do the necessary things are they are live. With this, they can do account enquiries, customers are also able to check their loan processing information. The App is designed to prompt our customers on when next they will repay their loans. For those who have been using our other channels like our Taka platform, they can disburse their Taka loans through the mobile App, “he said.
