Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) and its partner institutions will on April 25, 2018 launch a new Shared Agent Banking Platform in Kampala, Eagle Online understands.
Sources said the platform will enable the 25 commercial banks in Uganda to extend their services to remote areas where they expect also to increase access, address cash challenges and provide a range of products and services that are expected to bring some of the rural people into the country’s financial system.
Key note speakers expected at the launch event at the association’s headquarters in Muyenga-Kampala are UBA CEO Wilbrod Humphreys Owor, MD-Electics Group Paul Mbugua, CEO Diamond Trust Bank Varguese Thambi and ABC Bank CEO Richard Yego.
Under a joint venture partnership, UBA and Eclectics International early last year signed an agreement where the latter was to design, develop, deploy and operate the inter-operable shared platform that connects all member banks to the agent network spread across the Country.
Supported with agents, the platform is expected to help bring the big percentage of the country’s informal sector into the financial system where monetary policy and targeted interventions can be directed.
The platform will enable all agents provide agent banking services to existing customers of all the UBA member banks as well as bring on board the unbanked, unserved and underserved segments of the population for financial services. Also under the arrangement, banks will continue to drive the recruitment of customers and marketing of their other products and services.
The benefits that accrue from the establishment of the shared Agent Banking Platform include increased points of presence at a reduced cost of expansion with opportunity to upgrade technology at minimal cost.
UBA says the initiative is a sustainable step for member banks to reduce their costs of operations, which benefits will be passed on to their customers and the wider population by way of access to more cost effective channels.
More, there will be the introduction of new mass market products and secure lending opportunity for banks to extend loans to agents among others Owor said last year.
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