SIAKON MEDIA

ECOBANK Ghana and Zain Ghana launched a novelty in Ghana known as Ecobank Mobile Banking with ZAP at a short ceremony in Accra yesterday.

The service will allow Ecobank customers to use their mobile phones to send and receive money from Ecobank accounts, transfer money, check their balance and statements, as well pay bills, goods and services, among other functionalities.

The service  presents  a convenient, accessible and secure package of mobile banking features.

Speaking at the launch of the new service, the Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Samuel Ashitey Adjei, said the launch of the new service “showcases the strengths of inter-industry collaboration and further validates the importance of strategic partnerships in today’s  business  world”.

He said mobile phones had become the most commonly used electronic devices and that the service had the potential to rope in a large number of the unbanked population in the country.

“Ecobank and Zain are introducing an exciting new way of doing financial transactions at your finger tips,” he stated, adding that Ecobank Mobile Banking with ZAP offered an alternative payment method apart from payment with cash.

Mr Adjei, who is also in charge of the West African Monetary Zone of the bank, said the service would be supported by the 24-hour operations of the bank’s contact centre operations.

For his part, the Managing Director of Zain Ghana, Mr Philip Sowah, in a speech read on his behalf, said ZAP allowed Zain customers to use their mobile phones like wallets to pay utility bills, goods and services.

He said the collaboration with  Ecobank was historic in that for the first time in the country mobile phone users could manage  their bank accounts  using their mobile handsets.

He said since the introduction of the ZAP service in the country, over one million customers had registered with it, indicating that Ghana was ready for more innovative ways of conducting monetary transactions.

The Head of Transaction Banking at Ecobank Ghana, Owuraku Asare, demonstrated how the product could be used and added that the service could also be used to pay DSTv bills and recharges.

Ecobank Ghana is a member of the holding banking group Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the pan-African bank with presence in over 30 countries in Africa.

Zain is also multinational mobile phone operator in over 14 countries in Africa, until recently bought over by Bharti Airtel.
The company is due to be branded into Airtel in the coming weeks.

 

Source: Black Voices