27 Jun 2019

Standard Chartered Bank on June 26 night launched SC Mobile Banking App, the country’s first end-to-end digital-only retail banking application. 

Speaking at the launch in Gaborone, the bank’s chief executive officer, Mr Mpho Masupe, said this was a groundbreaking move for the banking industry in the country, which would allow customers to get services from the comfort of their homes.

Mr Masupe said the fact that they hadbeen in existence for 122 years in the country did not mean they were an archaic institution, but were rather in touch with a modern world.

He said after posting unsatisfactory results in the 2017-18 financial year, they promised to return the bank to profitability and introduce inventive ideas.

Mr Masupe said Botswana was the fifth market to introduce the state of the art new digital platform, which was first piloted in Côte d’Ivoire in 2018.

The Standard Chartered regional head-digital banking Africa and the Middle East, Mr Yustus Aribariho, said research had indicated that a large population of Africa was made up youth, the middle class was rising and there was a heavy uptake of mobile telephony usage in the continent, with Botswana being unique users of mobile phones.

Mr Aribariho said upon conduction of client research, they decided to introduce the SC Mobile Banking App, which used cutting edge, sophisticated technology, having cyber security features and ensuring a convenient look and feel, in order to “transform banking from a chore to a fun experience.”

Explaining how the feature would operate, Mr Oaipetla Fantan, the digital manager at the bank, outlined that for a minimum P12 monthly service free, clients would receive two gigabytes free wifi, and be able to open an account with them and transact a total of 70 services online, including bill payments, mobile money, funds transfers both domestically and internationally, ATM card activation, blocking and replacing cards among others.

He added that international funds transfers would effect on the same day for South Africa and for some selected markets would take four hours to clear.  

With depositing being the only major transaction that would not be included in the feature, it would mean most customers would be able to pursue banking from the comfort of their homes using their mobile phones.

Mr Fantan said this was a continuation of their proud history of introducing innovation into the country.

He said apart from having established the country’s first bank in 1897, Standard Chartered had also introduced, among other things, Botswana’s first automated teller machine in 1992; the first smart credit card chips in 2007; online banking, introduced in 2009 and expanded in 2016. Ends