UBA launches e-banking products
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Ghana Ltd has advised businesses in the country to put their operations on the global marketplace though the use of various electronic products that can give them more mileage.
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The Head of e-Banking Products and Sales at the bank, Mr Johnson Olakunmi, who made the call in Accra on Tuesday, said online corporate banking solutions would give businesses in the country and those in other parts of Africa the cutting edge to compete globally.
Mr Olakunmi said this when the bank launched a range of electronic banking solutions to provide convenience and easy banking for corporate bodies and individuals.
The products are the U-Direct Corporate, U-Payroll, Visa and MasterCard Point of Sale solutions, UBA Cards, as well online/web-acquiring solutions, which come in the form of U-Collect and U-Bills, U-Mobile and enhanced automated teller machines (ATMs) services.
U-Direct Corporate is an integrated product suite which provides corporate clients, including small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) with cash management and transaction banking services such as payments, collections, liquidity management, balance reporting and cash flow forecasting.
The product enables users to track funds due them (receivables) and runs a portal to receive funds or transfer them, whether in country or across the 19 African countries where the bank operates, as well as its international branches and agencies.
Explaining some of the value propositions of U-Direct, Mr Olakunmi said, “it is multi-lingual, multi-country, multi-subsidiary and multi-channel as it’s compatible with mobile, point of sale devices, at the banking hall and on the web.”
The subsidiary product of the system, known as U-Pay, he said had features that went beyond processing employee payroll and the entire compensation, to managing recruitment, training and development and performance management such as appraisals to retirement management, which are all done in real time and automated.
The Head of e-Banking Products said the point of sale (POS) solution of UBA accepted international cards such as Visa and MasterCard, irrespective of whether they are EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) standards, otherwise known as chip-and-pin cards, considered safer, or magnetic stripe cards.
The Point of Sale Terminal is a portable device that facilitates payments for goods and services at merchant locations using payment cards issued by all banks on the network.
POS terminals play a key role in the actualisation of the cashless banking objectives as they become a more popular means of receiving payments and transacting business.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mrs Abiola Baawuah, said the electronic banking products were gifts that the bank wanted to offer its clients this festive season.
“So UBA wants to make life easier and convenient for our customers and these are innovative products to facilitate business for entrepreneurs and individuals,” she said.
The online web acquiring solution also comes in two forms – U-Collect, a consolidated Internet payment gateway, integrated to website for online payments through electronic cards – U-Pay, a platform that allows merchants to collect payment for bills online.
Mr Olakunmi said the bank was holding talks with utility companies and other entities that receive payments such as schools, churches and supermarkets to bring them on board to enable customers of the bank who deal with them to have value.
