‘Appealing Access Bank’s digital products to push customer base to 65m by 2022’
The Head, Business Development and Planning at Access Bank Plc, Mr Chinedu Onuoha has given insights on how the financial inclusion appetite coming with several digital products of the bank will gross customer base to over 65m by 2022.
Explaining more during the launching of ‘Access Money Wallet’, a product introduced to drive financial inclusion in Lagos on Friday; Onuoha said Access Bank was targeting a minimum of 65 million customers by 2022 which would be driven through financial solutions.
According to him, “We have about 30 to 31 million customers presently, by 2022 we intend that we will have a minimum of 65 million customers, and the effort to drive the figure is through financial solutions like Access Money Wallet.”
According to the current chairman of the Association of Licensed Mobile Payment Operators (ALMPO), “all the statistics shows that a good number of Nigerians don’t still have access to financial services.”
“Access Bank from time to time, reviewed processes to drive the financial inclusion drive of the Federal Government by ensuring that all Nigerians, especially adults, had access to financial services.
“What we do from time to time is to see what is it we can do or change; and operate differently from the way it is being done today to induce these Nigerians to financial services and also to bring these services closer to them,” he stated.
Onuoha, who averred that financial services accessibility was the key issue in ensuring financial inclusion, gave details on the effectiveness of Access Money Wallet product, saying “The product was designed for customers who had abandoned their accounts because of inability to provide the needed Know Your Customer (KYC).”
“Access Money Wallet is a different type of account which we make available to or design for customers who for some reasons do not have all that is needed to provide for KYC for other types of bank account.
“There are some accounts that you want to open they will ask you to bring utility bill and address, among others.
“But we know the peculiarities of our country Nigeria, some Nigerians are good citizens who work every day to earn a living but don’t have places where you have utility bills and addresses.
“What we have done with Access Money Wallet is to say just come, give us your name, give us your date of birth, give us your gender and your age.
“And once you are an adult and a legitimate citizen we will give that wallet. It’s an account that allows transactions to be done through the mobile phone or also by going through our agents outlets across the country.
“So, that is what we are trying to do with Access Money Wallet to deepen the financial inclusion,” he stated.
Onuoha argued that currently, Access Bank has the highest number of financial inclusion customers of roughly 18 million customers, adding that “What we discovered over time is that due to the way the market is operated and due to do some regulations that come from time to time a good number of these customers do not meet some requirements for operating properly the way accounts traditionally were been operated.
“Some of them pulled back and stayed back, our recent campaign is to tell them that we have a solution to it.
“We have roughly about 15 to 18 million customers who are financial inclusion customers, the current campaign is to make them reactivate their accounts,” Onuoha said.
Continuing, the bank explained that customers can check their balances, send money to relatives, buy airtime with Access Money Wallet product, noting that “The daily limit is up to N50,000 in terms of withdrawals and the wallet can hold as much as N300,000.”
On loan lending, Onuoha said that the bank’s conversation with customers would increase once they enrich their KYC.
“As customers enrich their KYC, the bank’s conversation with the customer would increase, and the customer can now start benefiting from our lending products,” he said.
Recalling the exploits of the bank via digital channels, the Head, Business Development and Planning at Access Bank Plc, said in 2018, the bank gave out about N1.5 million loans and is would increase the delivery to N3m before the end of the year.
