By Our Reporter
With the goal of widening their service offering and responding to the ever changing customers’ needs, United Bank for Africa – Uganda will soon be rolling out Agent banking. This was revealed during a media briefing organized by the bank to discuss its strategic plans for the second half of 2018 on Thursday at the Kampala Serena Hotel.
Agent banking is the delivery of financial services outside conventional bank branches, where a licensed financial institution contracts a third party operator(agent), who is approved by the Bank of Uganda, to provide a range of financial services on its behalf.
Addressing the media, Johnson Agoreyo, the Managing Director and CEO of UBA Uganda, revealed that the product offering will help drive financial inclusion as it will extend the bank’s services to remote areas.
“We have been granted a license by the regulator to start Agent Banking and are already in the process of recruiting agents. This will help drive financial inclusion and bring banking services to unreachable areas. We expect to be up and running by the end of August.” Agoreyo said.
“Our customers are the most important part of our business and we endeavour to keep them at the center of all that we do, which is why we continue to invent and introduce products and services that respond to their needs,” he added.
Meanwhile, United Bank for Africa(UBA) which has a presence in 20 African countries has been at the forefront of development in Africa by funding massive projects in Infrastructure, healthcare, education, oil and gas and agriculture. In the last 5 years, UBA has supported infrastructure and development projects in East and Southern Africa worth over 500 million USD.
UBA Uganda in the same breath is partnering with the government and private sector to offer funding for similar projects. “As a group, we are committed to Uganda and shall harness a combination of its human resources, our experience and capacity to make a positive contribution to its economy,” said Emeke E. Iweriebor, the Executive Director /CEO East and Southern Africa.
In addition, UBA is keen to partner and support the government in its development agenda. The bank is currently implementing an e-voucher payment system project with the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries to facilitate funding of over 4,500 customers.
