Centenary moves to tap into unbanked population with new paperless bank account
Centenary Bank has today launched a paperless bank account opening service dubbed CenteXpress savings account as the financial institution aims at tapping into the country’s unbanked population.
Speaking at the launch of the savings account, Centenary Bank’s Managing Director, Fabian Kasi said all sectors of the economy are undergoing a new wave of change which has warranted further investment in digitally driven solutions.
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“According to the 2018 Financial Sector Depending Uganda report on banking, the number of Ugandans without bank accounts or some form of structured and legal financial services currently stands at 89% or 16.5 million of the 18.6 million adult population of Uganda, an indication that there’s need to continuously develop banking services that meet customer’s needs across all age groups,”Kasi said.
“Therefore, deploying and using appropriate solutions like the CenteXpress savings account is a step in the right direction in propelling personal and business continuity and promoting a culture of saving.”
According to the Centenary Bank’s Managing Director, the new product will add onto the others already in place meat to extend financial services to people at all levels.
According to Beatrice Lugalambi, the bank’s General Manager in charge of Corporate Communications, any existing can open an account for any person in the bank without any paperwork required.
She noted that the new bank customer is required to deposit a minimum opening account balance of sh3,000 which is paid to the bank customer opening the account for another whereas the bank pays a shs2000 commission for every new account the customer opens for another.
“CenteXpress savings account is a bank account opened for you instantly by any one of our existing customers with the intent of extending banking services and promoting a savings culture within a customer’s family, friends, relatives, colleagues, and acquaintances that are unbanked and yet need to use banking services especially saving for a better tomorrow given the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that caught many unprepared,”Lugalambi said.
“A potential customer does not need to visit a bank branch to get a CenteXpress savings account opened for them, because any existing customer can open the account for anyone using their phone in short simple steps and in less than 5 minutes. No paper work is required during the account opening process.”
According to the bank officials for the customer to open the new bank account for another person, all they need to do is confirm that the person’s number is registered.
The customer then uses the Cente Mobile App to capture the necessary new customer information on a digital form provides, takes a photo of their national ID and then enters the phone number and address of the new customer.
