The Lion King | 13
Ask the Executive
Please, tell us about yourself.
I am Yinka Adedeji. I was born
in Ibadan. My parents are from
Ijebu North Local Government
Area. My mother is not educated
and my father had only elemen-
tary education but they appreci-
ated and supported education,
so they sent and encouraged me
to study hard. I have four sisters. I
am married with two kids.
My first degree is in Chemi-
cal Engineering with First Class
honours from University of Lagos,
Nigeria. I have a Masters Degree
and PhD in Polymer Physics from
Case Western Reserve University
in Ohio, USA; and MBA (Finance)
from State University of New York,
New York, USA.
I did two years of post-doctorate
fellowship at the University of
Minnesota in Minnesota, USA,
with the intension of becom-
ing a Professor. However, I left
academia to join General
Electric as a plastics product
development scientist and
earned a Black Belt for Cost
and Process Improvement in
Silicon and plastic businesses in
New York, and finally as Market-
ing Manager for Advanced
Plastic products in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts.
I came back to Nigeria in 2005 to
join the dream team that drove
the post merger integration of
Standard Trust Bank and UBA, as
the Head of Business Transforma-
tion, and has since taken various
roles as Director of Channels,
e-Banking Sales for the North
Bank, CEO of Afri-Pay, a Mobile
Money subsidiary of UBA, and
currently the Divisional Head of
e-Banking.
Briefly describe your job as
Divisional Head, e-Banking.
My primary responsibilities are
to listen to customers, track
what competitors and suppli-
ers are innovating, monitor
regulatory directions and
subsequently recommend the
e-Banking products strategy
(Product innovation, position-
ing, and competitive pricing)
for the group. I manage a team
of e-Products Service Manag-
ers that manage more than 27
products.
What is the greatest risk you have
ever taken in your career?
My greatest risk is the combina-
tion of choosing to relocate to
Nigeria at a time I thought I was
doing very well in the United
States and switching industry
from Chemicals to Banking, at
the same time. Looking back, I
have had fun going through the
transition.
Outside of banking, what else
are you passionate about?
I am passionate about many
things. I have passion for primary
education, dynamics of the
real estate industry in Nigeria,
financial empowerment for the
“bottom of the pyramid,” as well
as socializing with my friends
after work.
How well has UBA embraced the
e-banking trend?
UBA has not only embraced
e-Banking trend, we have actual-
ly made e-banking the new way
of providing banking services
and our competitive edge in
the industry. UBA has actually
changed the thought process by
investing heavily in capacity and
innovation of e-Products such
that customers can now have
an e-banking relationship with
UBA unlike the old way of having
e-Products as complementary
to customer’s account with the
bank.
As you would have noticed,
we have expanded our card
portfolio to include local and
international card schemes
such as Visa and MasterCard
for our banked customers; intro-
duced Visa prepaid cards to
the unbanked, under-banked,
and banked customers that do
not want to spend directly from
their bank accounts; improved
the process of enrolment for
U-Mobile and U-Direct as well
as improved their functionalities
significantly; removed unfriendly
monthly charge; real time deliv-
ery of transaction SMS and e-Mail
alerts; upgraded ATM function-
alities and are replacing the old
ATMs with new ones.
UBA is also leading in the intro-
duction of Kiosks so we can
migrate non-Cash transactions
from ATMs. We are also intro-
ducing cashless withdrawals on
ATMS, introducing Social Banking
for those that are most comfort-
able on social media, and Near
Field Communication (NFC) tag
(Tagattitude) for high-speed-low-
value transaction payments.
UBA has also consolidated the
many payment products for
corporate customers into a single
platform, U-Direct Corporate.
How has e-Banking impacted on
the bank’s bottom-line?
UBA chose to drive e-Banking as
a business instead of as a support
service. This has changed the
way e-Products are built and
the services are charged. For
example, when U-Mobile and
U-Direct were provided as
service, we used to charge
monthly maintenance fee. Now
as a business, we removed the
monthly service charge but intro-
duce more functionality that
customers will be willing to pay
for.
What are the challenges
confronting e-Banking in Nigeria
and other African emerging
markets?
Our competitor in e-Banking is
CASH, not other banks. Major
challenges are lack of trust
for invisible e-Products, fear of
higher susceptibility to fraud,
failing of genuine transactions by
the security system that can be
perceived as poor service by the
same customer we are trying to
protect, and difficulty of commu-
nicating e-Product benefits to
customers. These challenges are
common across Africa and the
world in general.
How secured is UBA’s securi-
ty platform for e-banking
transactions?
UBA’s e-Banking security platform
is rock solid. The e-Products are
designed with at least two levels
of authentication before your
money can leave your account.
For sample, U-Mobile is designed
