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Ecobank's mobile app reaching 4m users

Regina Pazvakavambwa
By Regina Pazvakavambwa, ITWeb portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 05 Apr 2018
Fintech in Africa is predicted to grow from $200 million to $3 billion by 2020, says Ecobank.
Fintech in Africa is predicted to grow from $200 million to $3 billion by 2020, says Ecobank.

As an increasing number people see the benefits of mobile banking, Pan-African bank Ecobank's upgraded mobile app has attracted three million new customers in just six months, taking the total number of users to four million.

While the app gained one million customers in its first year of launch, upgraded features have seen the rate of sign-ups treble in half of the time, says Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO. So far this year, app usage has been growing at an average of 700 000 new customers a month, he adds.

Ecobank's strategic mission is built around using mobile banking to deliver innovative, efficient and cost-effective services to those who have typically sat outside of the formal economy, and therefore goes far beyond the reach of the traditional branch and ATM networks, says Ayeyemi.

The mobile app is available in 33 countries, including South Africa.

"Customers can use the app on their mobile to instantly open Ecobank Xpress Account, which doesn't have any account fees, paperwork or minimum balance requirements, or to send and receive money across 33 African countries.

"Therefore, our app not only removes the barriers that have financially excluded so many Africans, but offers next-generation functionality to help them send money, make withdrawals or pay for goods and services."

Ecobank says Africa is now at the forefront of fintech with 57.6% of the world's 174 million active registered mobile money accounts (100.1 million) in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fintech in Africa is predicted to grow from $200 million to $3 billion by 2020, it adds.

Barclays Africa's says transactions on its mobile app have reached between 2 million and 4 million a month over the past year.

Meanwhile, Capitec says smartphone app transactions now outstrip those undertaken in its physical branches, which contributed to operational savings of R180 million for the bank last year.

The bank, which signs up around 120 000 new clients a month, says it has taken its market share in SA from 2% to 25% in just a decade and now has over nine million customers.

McKinsey says in 2017 FNB's banking app had approximately two million active customers in South Africa.

To compete in Africa's diverse mobile money markets, banks must offer distinctive mobile and digital services not only in payments and deposits, but across the spectrum of financial services, it adds.

Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa at Veeam, says South Africa and the African continent are sterling examples of how financial institutions are pushing the envelope when it comes to revolutionising technology in their sector.

"Today's bank has become an icon on your phone: it's no longer the bricks-and-mortar building of old. That brings with it both pros and cons. As much as it offers the user speed and convenience, it also means that a customer's relationship with and loyalty towards the bank relies on technology," asserts Schuck.

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