The Lion King | 7
Six e-banking
services that
did not exist 20
years ago
U-Mobile
experience has taught him that he had to
persevere until his tally number is called.
At 2:00 p.m., still in a hunger induced sleep,
Tomuka heard his tally number being called.
Quickly, he got up, his sleepiness vanished
immediately. Tomuka picked his cash, every kobo
of his N5, 000salary. He did not intend to come
back to the bank until his next month’s pay. Until
then, every kobo of his salary will be safe inside
the false pocket he has sown into his pillow.
2013
“Hi dad, have you received the credit alert? I just
transferred the money to you”. It was Tomuka’s
son calling. Tomuka is now retired and his son,
Toritse, who works in Lagos was calling. His son
had helped him install U-Mobile from UBA on
his phone last week. Toritse, had told him that
with U-Mobile, he does not need to ever visit the
banking hall again.
“Dad, I am on my laptop now. I just sent you N20,
000 through my U-Direct.”
“Toritse, yes, I just saw the alert on my phone.
Do you mean the money is now in my bank
account? ”.
“Yes daddy. It is instant. You can use U-Mobile to
confirm your account balance on your phone if
you are in doubt”.
“Hmmm” was all Tomuka could say. Banking has
changed so much in the last two decades. He
thought.
He looked at his beautiful debit card issued by
UBA. He remembered the first time many years
ago, when he had seen, an ATM spewing out
money. It was like a miracle. It took him time to
get used to it. But now, he does all his withdrawals
through the ATM. His pension money is now
credited directly into his account. His son is
able to send him money instantly and he can
conveniently monitor his account on his phone.
Toritse tells him the many transactions he can
now do either on his phone or his laptop or
tablet. His son says he can pay all his bills, transfer
money from one account in UBA to another
account in UBA or another bank, buy things from
shops, all with his phone, laptop, or tablet and
without having cash on him.
Now, the “good” old days, when he had to
spend the whole day trying to get his money
from the bank, is just a memory. It was “good”
because one of those long days in the bank has
produced his wife and now his wonderful son
“Toritse”
He wonders what people do in banking halls
these day, when you can take the bank with you
everywhere you go.
Today’s banking customers take these six e-
banking services for granted. But they did
not exist 20 years ago.
Today’s UBA banking customer can do al-
most 90 percent of his or her routine bank-
ing transactions on his phone through the
innovative U-Mobile, an e-banking solu-
tion provided by UBA that allows custom-
ers to access their account information
via their GSM mobile phone. It also ena-
bles subscribers’ carry out basic banking
services anywhere in the country. With
U-Mobile UBA customers can view their
account statement, initiate inter-account
funds transfer, make payments to other
bank accounts and individuals, request for
cheque books or stop cheques, download
mini statements, make utility bill payments,
buy air-time, flight tickets, among others. U-
Mobile is unique in that users do not need
to have internet connectivity to initiate
transactions on it.
