Ecobank Nigeria Plc said it had concluded plans to deploy ten thousand Point of Sale terminals in Lagos as part  of plans to support the cash-less project of the Central Bank of Nigeria.  

A statement by the bank on Friday said the deployment would be in addition to the about 2,000 PoS terminals already deployed by the bank.

The Head, e-Products and Cards, Ecobank, Mr. Mike Ogbalu, said, “Cash-less banking is easy with Ecobank.We have a full range of innovative products and services designed to make the transition to Cash-less Lagos seamless for all our customers. 

“Ecobank is a frontline provider of e-Banking products in the Nigerian market. These include the Ecobank Internet Banking, which enables customers do their banking online securely from anywhere at any time and a wide range of Cards products like the Visa,Mastercard and the Ecobank Regional Card, available in 31 countries where Ecobank has presence.”

Commending the apex bank for introducing the policy, Ogbalu stressed that heavy cash transactions in Nigeria had slowed down the growth of the financial sector. 

“The full implementation of the policy will not only save money for the banks and depositors in respect of cash-handling cost, but will also enable seamless understanding study and projection of economic indicators,” he added.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees has commended the board and management of the bank for what it described as their seamless acquisition of Oceanic Bank Plc.

A statement from the bank quoted the National President of the union, Peter Okafor, as saying, “Ecobank has complied with our due process in relation to job losses by workers. They consulted with the union extensively and negotiated redundancies for workers in line with the Labour Act.

“We are having challenges with the three nationalised banks especially in relation to the status of our members after the banks were nationalised. The three nationalised banks have yet to reach out to the national union with a view to proactively and collectively address the foreseen employment-related challenges of human resources as likely consequence of the transition.”

Source: Punch/Ademola Alawiye