UBA’s Digital Banking Gains Momentum as Consumers Use More Accounts 

The number of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc’s digital banking users continues to grow, delivering significant benefit to the pan African lender and its customers.

The bank’s investments in state-of-the-art technology continue to yield expected results, evident in the huge boost of its digital banking income, which grew 53.7 percent year-on-year to N57.2 billion.

“These gains have enabled us to optimize net earnings amid the accelerating inflationary pressure, currency devaluation, and increased regulatory induced cost,” said UBA.

The value of the bank’s mobile banking transactions processed increased by 38.71 percent to N12.39 trillion in June 2023 from N8.86 trillion as at June 2022. Mobile banking volumes surged 139.15 percent to 438.90 million in the period under review from 183.50 million the previous year.

The lender has 15.10 million card customers and 409,301 point of sales (POS) 2,622 automated teller machines (ATM) across the country.

Indeed, UBA’s digital banking use is associated with higher net profit, product holdings, and balance growth and transaction activity as Nigerian youth who are tech savvy are using their mobile application to carry out transactions from wherever they are without having to set their feet on the banking floor.

As the top provider of online and mobile banking, bill payment, account-to-account and person-to-person payment solutions, the pan African lender is using its mobile and internet banking services or channels to deepen financial inclusion.

“UBA Mobile apps provide control, support and flexibility, offering banking and lifestyle features that lets customers do all their transactions easily from their mobile phone,” said the Bank.

“Our Internet Banking is an integrated single sign-on product suite through which we provide our corporate clients with cash management and transaction banking services” adds the Bank.

The results of the EFInA Access to Financial Services in Nigeria 2018 survey revealed that 36.6 million adults, representing 36.8 percent of the adult population, are financially excluded.

In the past 10 years, Nigeria digital banking sector has been magnifying as the government, through the major Telco firms (MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and Airtel Africa Plc) have been strengthening technology infrastructure.

Nigeria was recently named Africa’s digital payments leader, and the country’s banking sector is also the most digitized in the continent. According to a 2022 press release, Nigeria recorded 3.7 billion real-time payments in 2021, earning the sixth spot among countries with the biggest real-time payments markets.

Financial technology companies who become rivals to the traditional lenders are sprouting like mushrooms, again validating the country as the next growth phase of digital banking on the continent.

According to the Financial Consultancy Group or Fincog and BPC Banking Technologies, 80 percent of the 21 digital banks or neo banks in Africa were operating mainly in Nigeria and South Africa as of 2021. These institutions had 18 million users in the said period.