MONDAY, 04 OCTOBER 2010 00:00 BY FAITH OPARAUGO

 

United Bank for Africa (UBA Plc), has launched three trade’s related products designed to boost trade and commerce in Africa.Basically, the products, AfriTrade, AfriCard and AfriCash, which were launched in Lagos recently, will leverage on the growing continental presence of UBA, currently in nineteen Africa countries.

 

Addressing newsmen at the launch of the products in Lagos, Group Director, e-Banking and Retails Products, Mr. Ike Onyenokwe explained that the products were conceived to ease the stress associated with business transactions and payment processes across borders within Africa.Onyenokwe added that the AfriTrade product was designed to give customers convenience in payments to third party in any part of the continent.

 

According to him, the benefits of the AfriTrade to the customer included significant cost savings to the customer as it provided lower charges than normal local tariff for trade transactions, real-time trade payments into accounts within Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA) and Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) regions, faster resolution of discrepancies, same day completion of intra-African transactions by leveraging on our business offices across Africa and not international correspondent banks among others.

 

In addition, he described AfriCard as a Visa prepaid debit card variant, which was set up without need for the customer to own/operate a bank account with UBA.“It is a Naira denomination card that is prefunded and re-loaded and is internationally accepted in all Visa acceptance points,” he noted.However, he noted that the introduced AfriCash had been reposition to target financial remittances from individuals and groups within Africa, which had increased dramatically over the past decade.

 

He emphasised that the UBA AfriCash was available in all the 19 countries where the bank had presence including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Cameroon, Uganda, Chad, Burkina Fasso, Senegal, Benin, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Conga Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo and still counting.He listed benefits of AfriCash to customer to include supports increasing trade, tourism and travel activities across Africa, allows for funds to be received in local and foreign currencies, very affordable fees transfer electronic and instant.

 

In his contribution, MD/CEO, Mr. Phillips Oduoza added that the three products were in the best in class but most importantly, exceeded the expectation of the teeming customers across Africa.He stated that the product would help traders, businessmen, students/parent, missionaries and tourists etc to move funds across Africa both to named beneficiaries and into bank accounts in UBA, help facilities prompt and low-cost processing of trade and payments within Africa and also enable customers to do their transaction.

 

He noted that the introduction of the new products was premised on the value proposition by UBA as it consolidated its operations in the continent.“Our continent is full of potentials and intra-country trade within the continent will see the potentials translating into growth and development and that is exactly what these products bring to Africa trade and commerce,” said Oduoza.

 

Source:Guardian