Ecobank’s updated mobile banking app has attracted three million new customers in just six months, taking the total number of users to four million. Douglas Blakey speaks to Ecobank group CEO Ade Ayeyemi to find out more

Ecobank’s new app builds on the core functionality of the original version, widely lauded as a potential game changer to tackle financial exclusion. Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank’s group CEO, says Ecobank’s strategic mission is built around using mobile banking to deliver innovative, efficient and cost-effective services to those who have traditionally not used branch and ATM networks. While the original app attracted one million customers in the first 12 months after launch, customer acquisition is now running at around 700,000 per month. Adds Ayeyemi: “Customers can use the app on their mobile to open Ecobank’s Xpress Account instantly. The account has no fees, paperwork or minimum balance requirements. Customers can also 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 has set the ambitious target of serving 100 million customers in the 33 countries in which it operates. According to the World Bank, only 34% of the population
in sub-Saharan Africa have access to banking services. By 2020 it is forecast that there will be approximately 500 million smartphones in the region, and access to broadband services is rising quickly.

According to Ecobank, its mobile app is the only unified banking app across 33 countries in Africa, enabling transactions in 18 different currencies and four major languages: English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Via the app, users can also utilise bill payments, top up mobile airtime, check account balances and exchange rates, stop cheques and block debit cards. Ecobank has developed similar functionality on USSD for customers who do not yet own smartphones.

To drive profitability and increase ROI to shareholders, Ecobank is engaged in a comprehensive digital channels investment programme. Augmenting its m-banking app, Ecobank Pay now has over 64,000 merchants signed up to accept Masterpass QR and mVisa QR payments. Ecobank’s redesigned internet banking channel has approaching two million registered users.

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Other highlights include Ecobank Xpress Points. Launched in December 2017, Ecobank currently has 2,400 active agents and plans to ramp up to 50,000 in 2018 leveraging alliances and partnerships.

It has signed agency banking distribution agreements with Total and OiLibya with
over 2,700 outlets in countries of mutual operation.

Product highlights include:

• Ecobank Xpress Account: A KYC-friendly digital-only account to improve financial
inclusion. Leveraging the registration details of mobile network operators, users are able to open an account instantly, subject to local regulatory approval. So far, the Ecobank Xpress account has been approved by regulators in 25 countries where the bank operates with regulatory approval sought in the bank’s remaining markets;

• Xpress Cash: A product first in the region, this allows mobile app users to generate
an e-token which can be redeemed at an Ecobank ATM – the bank has over 2,800
ATMs across its 33 African markets – or at an Ecobank Xpress Point agent. Customers have the option to share the e-token with any beneficiary in the same currency of both the sender and beneficiary. This option allows for cross-border redemption of the e-token.

Ecobank has been promoting its digital capabilities via comprehensive digital
marketing campaigns on Google and Facebook and plans to ramp up its marketing
efforts during 2018.

Recent fintech initiatives include the inaugural Ecobank Fintech Challenge, increasing engagement with the fintech community in Africa. Ecobank inducted 20 companies into the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship programme from a pool of over 800 applicants. Work has commenced to improve the process of offering microloans, serving customers’ basic needs using bots on social messaging platforms leveraging artificial intelligence, leveraging IBM’s Watson technology and providing mobile banking services in “dead zones” where there is poor or no network connectivity.

The 100 million customer target is ambitious but Ecobank is off to a flying start to meet the goal. In the year to end 2017, account numbers grew by 20% from 12.6
million to 15.1 million. For fiscal 2017, Ecobank reported a profit before tax of $288m compared to a loss before tax of $131m in fiscal 2016. Customer deposits rose by 13% for the year to end December 2017 to $15.2bn; other highlights included a 90-basis-point reduction in the bank’s cost-income ratio to 61.8%.