Centenary Bank reaches out to over 250,000 people in financial inclusion drive

Centenary Bank has reached out to over 250,000 Ugandans as it makes strides in extending financial services to the unbanked communities through authorised agents who offer the same services as those offered by the bank.

A 2017 survey by Sauti za Wananchi found out that only one out of six Ugandans (16%) has a bank account and that the proportion has not grown in recent years whereas only 4% have an account with a microfinance institution.

Following the enactment of the Financial Institutions Act 2017, Bank of Uganda has spearheaded financial inclusion of the unbanked population as part of its top agenda by encouraging banks to create appropriate platforms to deliver initiatives that will help close the gap of access to financial services for all.

In a bid to reach more of the unbanked population in, Centenary Bank rolled out Agent Banking services in 2018 after a successful pilot exercise completed in December 2017 and by the close of 2018, the bank had over 2,400 agents countrywide.

Currently, the bank has over 3,500 active agents providing its customers with convenient services at a relatively low cost and this translates into a reach of 250,000 people.

According to Charles Kabanda Ssentamu, the General Manager Retail and Outreach Division at Centenary Bank, revealed that as per the process, Bank of Uganda put in place stringent agent banking policies that all applications must undergo to ensure customer’s deposits and funds’ safety,

“Agents’ enrolment is a rigorous process that is carried out in line with the Central Bank guidelines and regulations. We the potential agent’s financial history, cash flow consistency, location, statutory compliance, financial soundness and discipline, among other parameters,”Ssentamu added.

“Customers are also advised to report suspicious or unauthorized activity on their accounts if they receive SMS alerts and we impose a daily amount transaction limit among others.”

Sandrah Tumuhairwe, the Centre Manager at Big Ben Enterprises, a financial services company in Bushenyi town says that foot-fall to agent locations is overwhelming.

“On average, I have about 60 transactions in a single day from the bank’s customers while on bad days, there could be a minimum of 20 to 30,”Tumuhairwe said.

“Initially, most people would come for mobile money services but when agent banking launched, more people came for the services as witnessed by the amount of transactions made.”

The bank recently launched the CenteVoucher, a service that can be used by non-bank customers to receive money from existing customers and withdraw directly from an agent within their neighbourhood.

A 2017 survey commissioned by the Financial Sector Deepening Uganda (FSDU) and carried out by MicroSave found that up to 58% of Ugandan adults who are currently unbanked could benefit from Agent banking.

This means that an additional 9.3 million Ugandans could have access to formal financial services, thus tripling the current number.

So far, of the 24 commercial banks in the country, only about 6 banks have launched the services, minimizing the impact that the Agent Banking platform is expected to have.