[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n commemoration of Africa Day, the chief executive officer of UBA Africa, Abiola Bawuah, has revealed that the bank has yet again trailblazed an innovative product, Africash, that will enhance and promote seamless intraAfrica trading without the need for forex.

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Bawuah made this revelation during an interactive session held recently with the media while discussing the topic Innovative Banking in Africa.

According to her, Africash is a secure electronic payment service that allows UBA customers send and receive money from the 20 countries UBA operates in.

“Eco currency, the proposed common currency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), may not work out as the regional blocs are not yielding due to many factors but with the innovative product like Africash, someone can sit in Lagos and buy materials directly in Ghana without the need to change into dollars,” she said.

The UBA Africa’s CEO also added that while other banks were sleeping, UBA was the first bank to venture out of Nigeria and has not looked back since in ensuring that African youths and entreprenuers on the continent are sufficiently taken care of with tailored products.

“As CEO Africa, my job is to ensure that wherever our customers is, they have great experience and ensure our products are tailored to fit the local customers. For instance, any product that originates from francophone countries is tailored into anglophones.

“We also support governments all over Africa in the area of infrastructure based on our mission that Africa must become great. This is also a belief that our chairman, Tony Elumelu, holds dear and always insists that Africa must be developed by Africans.

“We have added value to agriculture and manufacturing on the continent. Because we realised that government is not set up to create jobs, so we are collaborating to create jobs and ensuring that we partner with business communities in order to relieve African governments. This allows them focus on regulating private sector properly,” Bawuah stated.

On how the bank is working to support Micro Small and Medium Enterprises keeping in mind that 60% of private sectors in Africa are MSMEs, Bawuah said that the bank is always looking for ways to ensure its customers prosper.

“UBA is the only bank with the lowest interest rate because our motto is that when customers prosper, our bank prospers. It is not about the interest for us, but helping our customers grow.

“It is only in UBA that a MSME, who is faithful and running his account properly, can get loans without collateral.”

United Bank for Africa (UBA) PLC, a leading pan-African financial services institution with a global footprint, reported that as at last month, none of its subsidiaries is making loses, which according to UBA Africa’s CEO, means the bank has turned round the cycle and has been able to navigate the business terrains on the continent.

“There is no country we are in Africa today that we can say our branches are so inefficient that we need to close them. Ofcourse, there is always room for better delivery but they’ve moved beyond the red zone,” she submitted.

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Photos from UBA Africa Day

Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.