One of Ghana’s leading banking institutions, Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) has organized a forum to sensitize market women and traders on its latest application, the UMB SpeedApp.

Market women and traders were given a practical overview of the UMB SpeedApp, its benefits and how to use it for business transactions. The forum was held on Monday, June 18, 2018 at Rawlings Park in Accra.

Head of Channels at UMB, Mr Myles Hagan reiterated the bank’s vision of being at the helm of affairs in terms of financial inclusion. He added that the forum focused on market women because the bank’s customers comprised mainly of the informal sector.

“Most banks have a plan of enhancing financial inclusion and UMB wants to be at the forefront when it comes to enhancing financial inclusion. For that reason we decided to come closer to the market because our customers are in the markets”, Mr Hagan explained.

Mr Hagan added that a USSD code has been made available for non-smartphone users. This, he claimed, was to ensure that the financial inclusion objective is fulfilled.

“The app presently is for android, apple and windows phones. We have a USSD component which will make it possible for any customer who hasn’t got any of these type of phones to be able to use the shortcode to execute the transaction, and that is also part of our pilot phase. Phase one was to launch the app, phase two is to get the USSD service that we can get virtually everyone on” he added.

Personal Assistant to the Executives of the Greater Accra Markets Association (GAMA), Kareem Lammeh lauded the initiative, affirming that the SpeedApp will ease business transactions between traders and their customers.

Admitting that the application was unveiled at a crucial time when traders hardly paid visits to banks, Mr Kareem Lammeh asserted that there will be a meeting with GAMA executives and the leadership of UMB to deliberate on how to educate stakeholders within the informal sector.

“We have a problem. Traders have a problem. To come out of their workplaces and go to a bank to join a queue, they don’t have time for it. We have come and we have listened. We have seen what they have for us”, Kareem Lammeh said.

The UMB SpeedApp is a banking application that offers customers and non-customers 24/7 access to manage their eligible accounts, along with various payment, funds transfer and funds management features.

The app also allows users to buy airtime, check account balances, monitor transactions, perform cardless cash withdrawals at any UMB ATM, request and track loans, transfer funds instantly to UMB and other domestic accounts, as well as pay bills swiftly via Scan & Pay.