First National Bank of Botswana said this week its Cellphone Banking innovation is proving to be a winning formula as it has reached a milestone of over 150,000 registered customers.
The bank’s Head of Electronic Banking, Thato Kubu, said the success is attributed to FNB’s brand promise of helpfulness and the bank’s passion for innovation.
“The customer response to Cellphone Banking has been overwhelming. When we launched the service in 2006, we did so with our customers in mind; we wanted to change their banking experience,” Kubu explained.
“With Cellphone Banking, we offer them access to banking that is quick, easy, affordable and convenient – and this accomplishment is confirmation of our goal to deliver a modern solution of doing banking in a cost effective way.”
The FNB Cellphone Banking allows customers to perform a range of transactions, such as making payments, doing transfers, making balance enquiries, buying prepaid airtime and sending money using FNB’s new eWallet service.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) quoted banking house, Lorato Boakgomo-Ntakhwana, added that cellphone banking has enabled the bank to provide our customers with a convenient, safe and simple channel to do banking.
“And with Botswana’s cellphone penetration so high, this effectively means that customers can bank from anywhere they want. Through Cellphone Banking our customers can transact anywhere, at anytime. It is as simple as that,” said Boakgomo-Ntakhwana.
“Prepaid airtime purchase is a favourite with our customers. Out of all our Cellphone Banking transactions, more than half of these are for prepaid airtime,” added Kubu.
The simplicity of cellphone banking has resulted in a diverse portfolio of customers using it. Customers from both urban and rural areas are making use of our Cellphone Banking channel.
“The success of Cellphone Banking has proven that our offering is trusted and preferred. We strongly believe that it will continue to grow substantially,” said Kubu.
