Nigeria’s banking industry has evolved as a dynamic and vibrant one since the consolidation of 2005. Key drivers of the industry are innovation, skills, product development, and special service delivery. It is noteworthy that these notable features are displayed by both the new generation and old banks.
UBA is among the old generation banks that is raising the bar in the banking industry with innovative services that meet every customer.
The bank recently led the industry on a cutting-edge outbound money transfer service. This is a special service to individuals resident in Nigeria who want to use official channels to send little money to relatives anywhere outside the country. Before now, this official channel was non-existent until Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), recently came up with a guideline on it which UBA quickly embraced, partnering MoneyGram for the outbound transfers.
MoneyGram is a US company with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. But really, it is a global company. It is a strong, fast growing remittance player globally with over 330,000 agent locations worldwide. Its business relationship with UBA dates back to over 16 years.
Under the outbound money transfer product, tagged ‘MoneyGram Naija Sends’ launched recently in Lagos, a customer can send up to $5,000 in naira equivalent per transaction. The recipient will receive it in that country’s local currency. According to UBA, little fee is charged the sender on each transaction.
Though this money transfer product represents exciting innovation in Nigeria, but for many years, most of UBA’s African subsidiaries had offered outbound money transfer service to customers in other parts of Africa through MoneyGram.
Having facilitated in-bound and out-bound money transfers in various markets, analysts believe that UBA is well equipped and positioned to take advantage of this new platform as presented by the CBN to provide to its teeming customers the MoneyGram Outbound Money Transfer Service.
At the launching of the product in Lagos, Phillip Oduoza, the bank’s CEO, said: “The outbound money transfer service allows Nigerians to send money in naira to over 200 countries around the world. This they can do by simply working into any UBA branch in Nigeria or in the 18 other African countries where UBA has operations outside Nigeria, or through any other MoneyGram agent bank.”
At the event, Oduoza made a live demonstration of how the service will work by sending money from Nigeria to Ghana. He sent naira, and the CEO of UBA Ghana received it in real time in Ghana Cedis.
He further said the new UBA and MoneyGram outbound money transfer service will boost trade and business between African countries. With the service, many Nigerians who do business across Africa will no longer have to move around with cash as they can easily transfer money to their business partners in other African countries or in China, Europe and America, to pay for goods and services bought.
He described the new money transfer service ‘Naija Sends’ as yet another testimony to the innovative, customer-centric disposition of both UBA and MoneyGram.
“This service opens a new vista of opportunity for Nigerians to easily trade with other Africans and also trade with other parts of the world. It also offers a great platform to send money to loved ones abroad. As Africa’s global bank, we are proud to collaborate with MoneyGram to make this service available. It opens a whole new world of opportunities for our customers,” Oduoza said.
On her part, Kemi Okusanya, regional manager, Anglophone West Africa, MoneyGram, said the launch of ‘Naija Sends’ had further deepened the brand’s reach and service in Nigeria.
“Over the last two decades, MoneyGram has facilitated over 15 million transactions in Nigeria, enabling safe, convenient and reliable transfer of funds from the Nigeria in Diaspora to their loved ones. As Africa’s largest economy, with over 10 million migrants, we are glad we are now able to also offer Nigerians the opportunity to send money abroad to their loved ones and for business transactions,” Okusanya said.
Though outbound money transfer is not easily estimated but in-bound remittance to Nigeria alone is put at over N$21 billion annually. The whole of Africa receives about $32 billion annually.
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