Awards for Excellence 2018
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The award for Africa’s best digital bank is, happily, an increasingly competitive one, as banks invest a lot of money and energy in innovative products for clients who have ever-greater access to mobile and internet technology, and an ever-decreasing willingness to travel to a bank branch.
Despite fierce competition, one bank stood out in the last year for the inventiveness of its efforts in this area: United Bank for Africa.
One of its signature launches in Nigeria in January this year was Leo, an e-chat service using artificial intelligence to help customers execute transactions on Facebook. Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, gave a nod to the service during a talk at a recent developers’ conference – a sign of its recognition at the highest levels of digital technology.
With Leo, UBA’s clients can open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and top up airtime. They can also confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, freeze accounts, ask for mini statements and even check the weather. UBA says: “We do not want to react to competition and market disruptions, rather, we aim to be the game changer.”
Within two weeks, Leo confirmed that promise, leading to the opening and reactivation of as many as 60,000 accounts. It is now being launched in Cameroon, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Congo.
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| Kennedy Uzoka |
Beyond Leo, the bank recently added fingerprint and retina recognition access to further enhance security and user experience on its mobile banking platform. UBA also makes basic banking services available to its clients on all mobile device types, regardless of data availability.
The bank is also leveraging technology to reduce business travel, where possible, to reduce greenhouse emissions. It has increased its video conference facilities and user group telephone lines, and established blogs to help communication across the network.
If it fulfils its ambitious plans to partner with fintech companies, UBA, with group managing director Kennedy Uzoka, could continue to lead African banks in the area of digitization.
