Malawi: Cell phone banking to begin

  1. Posted on Thursday 10 December 2009 - 09:48
    madalitso
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    Madalitso Kateta, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi
    Opportunity International Bank of Malawi (OIBM) one of the banks that has the widest coverage in the country has announced that it will soon go cell phone banking to meet the demands of the rising banking services in the country.
    mobile phone
    OIBM chief marketing officer Steve Mgwadira said the bank was trying to bring innovative banking technologies in Malawi as one way of attracting communities to access banking services.

    He said currently only 17 percent of Malawians have access to banks and with the new innovation there was hope that the number of people depositing their money in banks would increase.

    “The bank is trying to reach the unbankable communities especially those in the most remote areas where we have the highest customer base, “he said.

    He said as part of the project the bank was identifying businesses that reach the most remote areas to partner in the project so that it introduces point of sale services.

    Minister of Trade Eunice Kazembe said the government was committed to making banking accessible to all Malawians.

    She said it was worrying that recent surveys show that only 19 percent Malawians get bank loans to finance their businesses.

    “Recent enterprise surveys show that only 19 percent of Malawians have access to the formal banking sector, 20 percent use bank loans to finance their investments and that only 30 percent firms use bank loans to finance expenses,” she said.

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