News

Nigerian bank opens self-service e-branch

April 1, 2014

Lagos, Nigeria-based Access Bank has opened a self-service electronic branch called Access Express in Lagos State. The bank plans to open at least another 50 Access Express branches across the country, Herbert Wigwe, Access Bank's group managing director and CEO, said in a statement.

At the opening of the first e-branch in Ikota, Lagos State, Wigwe said the Access Express would serve as a self-service electronic center to promote inclusive banking and the Central Bank of Nigeria's policy of a cashless economy, reports AllAfrica.

As well as dispensing cash to cardholders of Access and other banks, Access Express allows Access accountholders to make balance inquiries, access their statements, deposit cash, transfer funds, make payments for pre-booked airline tickets, purchase mobile phone airtime and pay utility bills.

Customers can also make checkbook requests, apply for loans and request bank drafts, Abraham Ehijator Aziegbe, Access Bank's group head of retail operations, said in a statement.

"Our self-service electronic branch is a one-stop center where customers are able to do banking transactions, which ordinarily would have taken them to the banking halls," Wigwe told a forum in Lagos, reports Human IPO.

A growing number of banks are offering self-service branches in Africa, Human IPO said.