Akinwuntan, Ecobank Nigeria MD
Ecobank Nigeria has emerged the winner of “Consumer Finance product of the year” award at the Middle East & Africa (MEA) Retail Banking Innovation Awards organized by Digital Bankers. The MEA Awards, according to its Managing Director, Nirav Patel aim to recognise and celebrate the world’s outstanding Financial Services Organisations that are pioneering unrivalled standards and capabilities in their respective fields across the Middle East and Africa.
He said that the awards recognize ‘those that are transforming the industry by setting new milestones in service delivery, digital innovation, product development, payments, technology, customer experience and more.’ The award committee observed the disruption of the global financial system with the advent of Covid 19 pandemic and how Ecobank deployed its digital offerings to serve its customers.
Commenting on the award, Managing Director/Regional Executive, Ecobank Nigeria,Patrick Akinwuntan described it as a worthy recognition of Ecobank’s digital transformation landmark initiatives, stating that the bank’s digital payment and collections platforms have brought convenience to the daily running of customers’ businesses. He noted that with its digital offerings, Ecobank was able to serve its customers without interruption during Covid 19 nationwide shutdown. He listed some of the digital platforms as Ecobank Mobile App and USSD *326#, Ecobank Online, Ecobank OmniPlus, Ecobank Omnilite, EcobankPay, Ecobank RapidTransfer, ATMs, POSs, as well as an extensive distribution network of over 250 branches and about 40,000 agency banking locations.
“As a fast-paced bank, we are constantly innovating our processes to ensure customers’ ever-changing needs are met as well as achieve our corporate objectives. Some of the key mandates we will be fulfilling in the nearest future include having a fully digitized loan platform to ease accessibility and use of our products. We will also be enlarging our agency banking network to reach the unbanked and underbanked in Nigeria. We are delighted to receive this prestigious award. It is a testimonial to the hard work we have done in line with our digital transformation and innovative products and service.” Akinwuntan said.