UBA advances mobile app to aid lending to SME, customers

United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) Plc has upgraded its mobile banking applications with unique and exciting features that would aid easy access to loan for those at the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and customers across Africa.

The pan-African bank said the advancement in its mobile App is meant to reflect digital disruption in the banking sector, among which is a contactless mode of performing transaction.

This was disclosed via a media parley on Zoom on Monday, which the financial institution disclosed new features that have just been integrated into its updated mobile banking App.

Disclosing these features, group head, digital banking, UBA, Mr Samson Aneke said the new features on the refreshed version of its mobile app allow group transfer and transfer to a telephone number, among other things.

According to him, the group transfer feature was introduced to empower SMEs, while the feature that allows transfer to telephone numbers is to enhance financial inclusion across Africa against the background of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He disclosed that a group transfer option allows users to create groups, save members and transfer funds to up to 100 members at the same time.

According to him, “With this option, the user can do a single lump sum debit and multiple credits to beneficiaries irrespective of banks where their accounts are domiciled.”

He said this feature put the UBA mobile app first in the African banking space to be able to execute salary payment, thus addressing a major need in the SME space.

Aneke said “We are pushing services to what we call Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). These are for sustainability, banks that would survive in the coming days would mean that the more BYOD you do, the more you are ready to survive.

“We are taking services to the devices that customers hold themselves. You would be happier to use the device you came out with from your home to transact than shared facilities.”

He further explained that the new mobile app will now prompt users to use their device enabled biometrics, adding that the menu has been reduced and divided into sub-menus to enable users to view Transaction History, Net worth, Trends amongst others at a glance.

Regarding contactless modes transactions, Aneke said UBA is mulling voice banking across various channels.

“We are thinking of image withdrawals where we can just scan your image and you can withdraw. So some of the things that would replace POS, some are already here while some are still in the making like QR code we are already in the current app, so you wouldn’t need POS.”

Also, the Group Head, Consumer and Retail Banking, Mr. Jude Anele named more exciting products that the bank had introduced to its customers.

“We have come up with a proposition for our kids, those that are from ages one to 12, mostly in primary schools.

“In the space of financial inclusion, the best place to start is to catch them young and also from the point of view of financial education which is very critical,’’ he said.

Other products introduced were the UBA Bumper Account, Target Account, Diaspora Banking, targeted at Africans, Click Credit and SME banking, among others.