Wema Bank Plc has taken agent banking to Kano state. The banking plan is expected the help the lender deepen its retail footprint across informal economic sectors of the North-Western states.
The plan is also meant to drive financial inclusion within the entire northern region of the country.
Agent Bank is a cost-effective medium employed by banks to provide financial access to unbanked, under-banked, and branch-starved communities.
It is the provision of basic financial services such as account opening, cash deposit, cash withdrawal, fund transfer, bills payment, airtime recharge among others, through third parties (Agents).
Kano state is a huge state with 44 LGAs and arguably the biggest market in Northern Nigeria. Wema Bank is keen to rapidly expand its presence across the state and capture the larger market by employing Agent Banking to recruit at least 1 Agent in each LGA.
Already, 13 Fixed Agents have been engaged and trained. These agents will support the Bank’s aggressive push to capture the retail market by banking small and micro businesses as well as informal workers and rural dwellers.
According to Head of Retail Banking at Wema Bank, Dotun Ifebogun, Kano offers the bank a strategic inroad into an attractive economic region in the North West. Leveraging Agent banking helps the Bank to meet two strategic objectives; support the Central Bank’s financial inclusion drive while using a cost-effective medium to rapidly expand the Bank’s presence and capture a largely untapped market of those operating in informal business sectors across the country.