Ecobank drives grassroots’ financial inclusion with unveiled Xpress Account
More facts have emerged on why leading pan African bank, Ecobank Nigeria recently launched what it described as its flagship digital product, the Ecobank Xpress Account (EXA).
The bank said the key consideration in developing the new product is to resolve the puzzle of taking banking services to the grass roots and in the process deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria.
The Ecobank Xpress Account is a digital account that is mobile based.
According to the bank, “EXAis simple and does not require any form of documentation for opening, therefore making it easy and convenient for all, while affording the customers the same services available to regular account holders.”
Details show that EXA can be opened on the Ecobank Mobile App by smartphone users or via the USSD for feature phone users.
Giving further insights during the launch, Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Charles Kie, said this was part of Ecobank’s “Road map to Leadership Initiative”, where Ecobank is focused on “becoming a force in the banking industry by leveraging its robust digital channels to drive financial inclusion for the un-banked in the different parts of Nigeria – urban, semi-urban and rural areas.”
Continuing, he said the new product would also enable the bank to meet its group target of 100 million customers by 2020, of which 40 million would come from Nigeria.
In his remarks at the launch, the Executive Director, Consumer Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Carol Oyedeji, listed the benefits of EXA to include easy account opening process without any paper documentation or stringent form of identification; ability to immediately do transactions from the account and withdraw cash through the Xpress Cash via Ecobank Automated Teller Machine or Ecobank Agent locations.
She noted that the process of Xpress Cash will enable customers to withdraw cash from any of the over 1,000 Ecobank ATMs without a card, explaining that “The customer simply generates a token pin (code) that enables him or her do a card-less withdrawal from any Ecobank ATM across the country or Ecobank agent. The token (code) generated can also be sent to anybody through a test message or WhatsApp and the recipient can withdraw cash from the ATM or agent.”
