Yinka Adedeji is the Divisional Head, e-Banking, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc. He spoke to CHIJIOKE IREMEKA on how agency banking, mobile phone, card and 'non-card' transactions could bolster the proposed cashless economy already being piloted in Lagos. Excerpts:Owing to the level of illiteracy among rural dwellers, how possible will it be to export the proposed cashless policy to rural areas'The rural areas require special funding. If one looks at it from the profitability point of view, one might not get it right. It's expensive to start business in the rural areas; considering what it costs to run a vehicle there. The roads are bad and you require more rugged vehicles.How much transactions can one record in the rural areas in a short period to break even' Don't forget it's all about business. You can't run an unprofitable business, except you are running charity.Trying to run profitably in the rural areas won't be an easy approach, but necessity would make the rural area come on board. The more they have need for a product, the more they go for it.For instance, in cable television, it is becoming very cheap and accessible; the rural dwellers are fast embracing the new technology. They have to pay their bills. It's either they pay through their phones or they go to someone, who has access to it.The more quest and quality of life requirement in the rural areas, the more you will see the need for financial services over there. If you are seeking for a solution, you adopt something. If I can send mobile money to someone that has bank account and he receives it, what else do I need' If I'm on mobile banking that links to my account, why do I need to open another account' These are the needs that will drive cash-lite policy in the rural areas.In Nigeria for example, cell phones didn't start in the rural areas, it started in the urban areas. So, once they were accepted here in the urban area, it was easy to be accepted in the rural areas. If someone in the urban sends another in the rural area mobile money from the city, because it is money issue, he will go and collect it at all cost. The need will propel the rural dwellers to imbibe the culture of mobile banking.The enlightment is on, all over the country. The rural area will come on board, slowly but in a very short time.What is the difference between mobile banking and mobile money'Mobile banking and mobile money are two different things. Mobile banking is what a bank offers as an alternative channel to access one's bank account. But Mobile Money says 'you don't need an account or bank to access cash, rather, I will give you third value on your phone.' This is what we refer to as agency banking.In United Bank for Africa, we have products known as U-Mobile and U-Mo. While U-Mobile is our Mobile Banking platform, U-Mo is a mobile money service platform. We were the first institution to launch mobile money in the countryExplain further on agency banking and how it will boost the policyAgency banking will drive an impression of banking. There are few branches of banks in the country and there is a growing need to spread across the country. Instead of going to all parts of the country, building more branches, people are allowed to use their business outlets for banking services.We believe agency banking would help penetrate and propagate banking business in the rural areas. It will make the system more acceptable to educated and illiterate in the area. The more educated they are, having knowledge of phone usage, the less dependent they will be in those banking.You can do everything on your phone, so how do you need someone else to do it' Where we are going today accepts payment electronically, why do we need to collect cash' We are bringing market place to the mobile money, where you can buy airtime and pay your bills.One of the fallouts of CBN's maximum cash withdrawal is presentation of multiple cheques for clearance. Also, CBN ordered firms to pay electronically, when workers are above 50, how do we contain this issue and that of wage earners'Well, it's now N500,000 and I think it is generous enough. It could be changed later. I believe we should have stayed at N150,000. It is a good approach. But for salaries preparation, there are several options on how to pay them.In UBA, for example, we can issue the employers with prepaid cards, with which the workers could be paid at the end of the month. We have low Know your customer (low KY) prepaid cards available to pay all the workers in the company, whether salaries or wages earners.For a cattle rearer who wants to sell over five cows in the field, how does he get his money if N500, 000 maximum withdrawal is generous enough; would he rather take cheque from an unknown customer'It is not safe to take cash from somebody you don't know. You can easily tell the person to send the money into your account. Before releasing your product, you can check your account online to confirm the payment. UBA's U-Mobile or U-Direct provide opportunities to check balances, transfer fund, pay bills and many more.Is Nigeria really prepared for cashless economy, especially with sad experiences on non-availability of ATM services in the rural areas'We are very prepared. There are several ways of getting ATM in good working condition. It requires ATM note.Again, customers may have over patronised ATM that it got out of cash, and there are no people to reload it. Apart from these, if the machine is out of cash, then it will be a shock to me that nobody was able to fix it immediately.Also, light situation affects it. To run an ATM is very expensive. Some of them could run out of cash, while others may be that the card issuer has server problem for different reasons.If the server is down, it won't dispense cash. Some banks don't process their cards like UBA does. Some of them depend on the third-party and this makes the situation more complicated.UBA is number one bank in electronic banking. There is no card scheme that anybody runs that UBA doesn't. We have prepaid card that issues cash in Naira. What other banks have is predominantly US Dollar based. We are positioning prepaid cards for banks.We have over 40 per cent of Visa card used in the country. Visa card celebrated five million cards that were issued and we issued over two million cards. So, when we talk about dominance, we are there. Nigerian banks are prepared.There is growing interest on 'card-less' transactions in Nigeria, how possible will this be'Card-less transaction is very possible. Most of the transactions we do today are cardless, especially through U-mobile. We have done it in Ghana and I'm sure we will do it here. With this system, one can simply send money to another's phone number and the recipient will receive a password. With the password, he can go to an ATM and collect the cash by putting the password.Customers can send funds through mobile phones, using the UBA U-mobile platform, or at the ATM using the ATM card, as well as from the nearest UBA branch, where the sender would have to fill out an eRemit form.It allows customers to pay their bills, DSTV subscription fees and also purchase mobile recharge credit on their phone or for third parties. U-Mobile is a card-less ATM withdrawal service that allows a third party to withdraw cash on ATM without a card.What is the difference between a corporate debit card and lodge card and how prepared is UBA'A Corporate Debit Card is a standard debit card issued to corporate organisations to be used by authorised staff. The card is tied to their corporate expenditure account. A company could have as many corporate cards as required. These cards are used by authorised staff member of the organisation primarily for official business such as travels and entertainment.A Lodge Card is a special debit card, which has been restricted to a specific terminal such as PoS. It can be used by the administrative department of an organisation to make payments for airline tickets and hotel bills among others.Yes, only after you active the Visa Dual Currency (DCDC) Debit Card Internet PIN (i-PIN) on a UBA ATM terminal, it can be used with your CVV2 code; this security number is different from the Personal Identification Number (PIN) and can only be used for Internet purchases.Also, we have gone beyond to make these cards acceptable internationally by partnering with international card issuers, such as the MasterCard and Visa Cards. These cards are acceptable anywhere in the world. For now, the MasterCard we issue is the single currency MasterCard. Meaning that with UBA's MasterCard, you can spend up to $40,000 in the United States(US) or anywhere in the world. This card is most perfect for Nigerians, as holders hardly spend more than this in a year. The beauty of it is that It doesn't have quarterly boundary.
Click here to read full news..
