UT Bank customers receive loans via e-zwich

Tuesday, 16 March 2010 09:08

Written by GNA

Indigenous Ghanaian bank, UT Bank, has found innovative ways of using the e-zwich platform to disburse to its customers in the remotest part of the country.

More than 920,000 Ghana cedis was disbursed to customers of the bank three weeks ago in a loan scheme to micro and small scale businesses. Some of the loan recipients are as far as the Upper East Region where UT bank has no branch.

According to the UT e-zwich Project Officer Mubarak Niriganlibir Bowan, the bank has been using the e-zwich electronic platform and the biometric card for a plethora of services available to the benefit of the financial entity and its customers.

He said the bank has a department dedicated to e-zwich which is constantly researching on how to effectively deploy the electronic service in innovative ways.

Regarding the loan disbursement, Mr Bowan said the bank decided to enroll the beneficiaries onto the e-zwich platform and after their loan applications were approved, the monies were disbursed and received by the customers in real time.

According to him, the new platform is so cheap and fast that customers who are enthused about the speed with which they got the money despite their location have been speaking to others who have called the bank to inquire about the service.

Mr Bowan said what was impressive about the use of the e-zwich to disburse loans was the fact that the beneficiaries have kept part of their monies on the card and they access it as and when they want to apply it to their businesses.

As at last week, about 600 thousand Ghana cedis representing some 65 per cent of the monies sent to the loan recipients are still on the e-zwich cards of the beneficiaries, he revealed.

He explained that the loans will also be repaid through the e-zwich cards.

UT Bank has adopted the e-zwich as its own product. It is one of the few banks that constantly advertise the electronic payment system.

It pays the highest interest rate of 15 per cent on the savings wallet of the card providing e-zwich services at all of its branches.