Charles Ajunwa writes that the visually impaired in Nigeria have started getting the inclusion they deserved with the launch of UBA’s Braille account opening form
The people living with disabilities and guests from all walks of life congregated at the corporate headquarters of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Marina, Lagos, on Tuesday for the launch of the UBA Braille Account Opening Form; a first of its kind initiative in the Nigerian and African market specifically designed to cater to the financial needs of the visually impaired.
The imposing UBA Building which has 18 floors with additional floors for car parks was built to accommodate both the able bodied and physically challenged, which aligns with the bank’s policy of inclusivity and sustainability in doing business.
There was an air of excitement and high expectations as guests and bank staff walked into the Amphitheatre, venue of the official launch of Braille Account Opening Form. The bank staff who strategically positioned themselves on the 15th floor of the UBA Building paid special attention to the visually impaired who beamed with smiles throughout the event.
Braille is a system of touch reading and writing for blind persons in which raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet. The dot patterns were assigned to letters according to their position within the alphabetic order of the French alphabet of the time, with accented letters and w sorted at the end. Today, there are braille codes for over 133 languages.
UBA’s Executive Director, Finance and Risk Management, Ugo Nwaghodoh, in his opening address said the bank continues to look for ways to make the physically challenged and others comfortable in their life-long relationship with the financial industry.
He said, “In our quest to drive all-encompassing financial inclusion, we decided to support the visually impaired by developing a Braille Account Opening Form and these special customers now have the same opportunities available to our customers. The ultimate benefit is to ensure that everybody has the right to select and choose the kind of account they want to operate, and this account opening form will go a long way to ensure this.”
According to him, “Approximately 26 million people in Africa are visually impaired and out of that about 20 million of them have low vision and approximately six million have total loss of vision and getting them fully involved in the banking system is a bit of a challenge. The system doesn’t allow for them to be fully integrated, recognising the need to achieve inclusion particularly for this category of people, the United Bank for Africa through its Sustainability Team has developed the Braille Account Opening Form. We will do more but this is just the first step in that direction.
“This is particularly an emotional event for me because we have quite a number of categories of challenged people who don’t have access to banking services or where they do, they have harrowing experiences in banking services. So, what we set out to do, is first of all to pull this category of people into the banking system to show that UBA cares and that UBA is here to serve, and that service culture is part of why we are doing this. The sustainability initiatives that we are putting in place means that we have to pull all of them in. Today, they all now have freedom. They can read and open their Braille accounts by themselves, they can make choices and onboard with a lot of ease and peace.”
On what informed the innovation, he said, “It’s basically the need to pull them into the banking system. So, if you had watched a blind person in the process of trying to open an account, it’s not a pleasant thing to see. They sit down there and somebody is reading out the contents of their account to them and it could take so long and such a horrendous experience for them to do this. Based on that, we thought we can make this easier for the customers because we are always thinking of how we can make things easier for the customers. We can make the on-boarding process easier for those that are visually impaired and indeed, one of the things we are doing going forward, is to also make sure that we think about them and build in things that enable them to go through the entire banking life circle with ease.”
Message of Freedom
Visually impaired multi-award winner, Nigerian musician, producer, and songwriter, Cobhams Asuquo, was in high spirits when he mounted the stage to unveil the UBA Braille Account Opening Form. His joy knew no bounds as he held the scissors to cut the tape.
Asuquo, while demonstrating on how the UBA Braille Account Opening Form works together with Rejoice Okeke, a student of Pacelli School for the Blind and Partially Sighted Children, Lagos, said the Braille account opening form opens a variety of accounts that are available and created in UBA.
“Ordinarily, I would just tell someone I want to open a current or savings account. I may not have had this information if someone was reading it for me. Now, I’m reading this for myself, this is really incredible. I’m so excited to have total control and I can actually afford myself a laugh when I’m feeling the form and not just concentrating on someone to do me the service. This really is freedom in my hands, this is inclusivity in action.”
Apart from endorsing the UBA initiative, Asuquo who enrolled into Pacelli School of the Blind in 1991, said before now they had been at the mercy of the temperament of the reader.
An emotionally moved Asuquo, expressed gratitude to the staff and management of UBA for coming up with the Braille Account Opening Form initiative.
“I’m thankful to UBA for brazing the trail and taking this bold step and showing that it can be done. What then happens if we are able to hold others accountable and say, if UBA can do it why can’t you? What you have done is not for UBA alone, it’s a strong message to others in the financial sector to say, we can do this thing and it takes people working tirelessly, people devoting their time and energy and people realising that banking is more than collecting people’s money. It should be done with humanity and I feel especially touched that this has happened. I’m looking forward to collaborations with persons with disabilities on many different levels.
“On my way here, I checked on a map for UBA House, I discovered that it was wheelchair accessible and that made me smile because I’m happy to have that freedom, it’s something to cherish.
“Thank you UBA for amplifying this much needed cause, I endorse this 100 per cent and I believe it is a much needed first-step that will lead to so many others.”
Commendations Galore
Rejoice Okeke, who was so excited to be part of the launch, said “I feel so glad for the great work UBA is doing for the visually impaired. I’m so excited because it’s so difficult for us the visually impaired to open bank accounts. So, as we have gotten the Braille method it will be so easy for us to open UBA accounts with ease. So, I appreciate the work of UBA and I say a big thank you to them.
“I will tell my friends and schoolmates that UBA has done a great job and I’m confident they will open new accounts with UBA.”
On her part, Reverend Sister Christiana Ekechukwu, who accompanied the blind students from Pacelli School, said the launch of UBA Braille Account Opening Form has given the children confidence. “Many of them are happy, they are asking ‘is it only this UBA branch?’ And I said, any of their branches. They asked, ‘is it only this bank starting it?’ I said they are just starting it and other banks will follow. That’s to show you how happy they are. It’s a good step they have taken and it has also made the children feel among not just depending on people when money is involved.
“If there is any word more than to say ‘thank you’ I would have used the word. But since there’s no other word, I’m saying ‘thank you’ to them and telling them too to move forward as they have promised because one thing with challenged children is when you make a promise to them you keep it so that they will not get stuck along the way and not feel bad.”
For past Chairman, Anglo-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind (ANWAB), Ogie Eboigbe, UBA deserved commendation. “I’m very happy at what has happened today. Representing the blind and the disabled community, this is one of the things we have been looking for a long time…So, we have been fighting for this inclusion all the time. Yes, people talk about inclusion in financial services. Bill Gates was here last week talking about inclusion – they are technically talking about the under-banked. For the disability community, it’s a big step that UBA has taken and I’m sure it will make other people very happy. I’m also glad they said that they are going to move it to other countries. I hope it will help the blind people in the African continent. The whole of Africa is disadvantaged when it comes to taking care of people who are disabled in many ways. I hope UBA will make a lot of noise about this to let other banks in Nigeria know that this is the way to go.”
Board member, ANWAB, and former national president of Nigeria Association of the Blind, David Okon, said he was more than excited at the launch. “I feel great because today UBA is starting what we have been clamouring for years. As the former head of Association of the blind in Nigeria, I have tried with the help of the association to see how we can make financial services inclusive in the country. As we speak, the Nigeria Association of the Blind has a project funded by Disability Right Funds (DRF) and that project is supposed to work with banks to make financial services inclusive to the blind and persons with disabilities. That programme has slowed down so much because we didn’t receive the cooperation we needed from financial institutions especially from the regulatory body, Central Bank of Nigeria.
“With UBA leading the space now, dictating the pace I’m sure we are going to do it. So we are grateful to UBA and hope that we will be able to work with them to make it far bigger than they have started.”
Former Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Persons Living with Disability, Adenike Oyetunde-Lawal, commended UBA for taking the giant step in financial services for the physically challenged especially the visually impaired. “This is an amazing project. This goes to show that government cannot do it all. We commend UBA for coming up with this project.”
Until now, this unique and special section of the society has been disadvantaged, but with this ground-breaking initiative, UBA has fully demonstrated its unwavering commitment towards providing an excellent user experience for all its customers, regardless of their individual abilities or disabilities.
