By Our Reporter
Centenary Bank has launched a new bank account opening service dubbed CenteXpress savings account intended to serve the unbanked Ugandan population.
According to the 2018 Financial Sector Depending Uganda report on Banking, 89% of Uganda’s adult population are without bank accounts or some form of structured and legal financial services.
“Deploying and using appropriate solutions like our bank’s CenteXpress savings account is a step in the right direction in propelling personal and business continuity and promoting a culture of saving. The CenteXpress account will supplement the numerous initiatives put in place by Our Bank to extend financial services to people at all levels,” said Fabian Kasi, the Centenary Bank Managing Director while launching the CenteXpress savings account at the bank’s Head Office at Mapeera House on Tuesday.
The rising demand for the banking industry to adopt solutions that offer suitable banking experiences in the prevailing conditions, anytime and anywhere has inspired the integration of technology to respond with appropriate solutions.
Centenary Bank General Manger Corporate Communications and Marketing Beatrice Lugalambi, in her remarks said that, “CenteXpress savings account is a bank account opened for you instantly by any one of our existing customers with the intent of extending banking services and promoting a savings culture within a customer’s family, friends, relatives, colleagues, and acquaintances that are unbanked.”
For the Centenary Bank customer to open a CenteXpress savings account for another person, all they need to do is first confirm that the person’s phone number is registered. The customer then uses the CenteMobile App to capture all the necessary new customer information on the digital form provided, takes a photo of their National ID, then enters the phone number and address of the new customer.
The Centenary customer then deposits the minimum opening balance of Ushs 3,000 on the new account while the bank system credits the existing Centenary Customer’s account with Ushs. 2,000 as commission for opening the new account.
The CenteXpress savings account presents access to numerous benefits and banking services directly on the phone including 24/7 access to one’s account using CenteMobile, free balance inquiry, withdrawals of up to 2 million shilling per day from all the bank’s digitally-driven channels including CenteMobile, as well cash-in and cash-out at ATMs and at CenteAgent locations.
