By Amin Kef Sesay
Afrimoney, an appendage of Africell Sierra Leone, in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB), on the 21st May 2021 held a programme at the SLCB Head office on Siaka Stevens Street geared towards informing members of the Fourth Estate and by extension the public that the two entities have revamped the Bank to Wallet, Wallet to Bank Service on Afrimoney.
In her statement during the ceremony the Afrimoney Director, Massa Mayson Dennis, expressed how elated they are to announce the revamp of their existing innovative Bank to Wallet, Wallet to Bank service partnership in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.
The Director underscored how the service will allow Afrimoney subscribers with Bank Accounts at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank to be able to transfer money from their Bank Accounts to their Mobile Money Wallet and from their Mobile Money Wallet to their Bank Accounts.
“A National Financial Inclusion Strategy released by the Bank of Sierra Leone states that 80% of Sierra Leoneans do not have access to financial services in the country and further studies have also shown that there is a direct correlation between the rate of financial inclusion and a country’s GDP,” Massa Mayson Dennis revealed adding that the service is therefore a solution or one of many to digital financial inclusiveness, and will directly drive financial inclusion and growth of the country’s GDP.
Mentioning the benefits that the platform offers, the Afrimoney Director intimated how subscribers will be able to move money from their bank accounts directly to their Afrimoney money accounts and vice versa.
“From your Afrimoney account you can be able to check your bank account balance,” she pointed out.
Dilating on how the service works she disclosed that Afrimoney subscribers holding a SLCB Bank Account will have to visit the nearest SLCB Branch to link their Afrimoney Money Account to their SLCB Account.
She continued that after a successful linkage the subscriber will dial *161#, Select Option 9 “Bank”, Select Option 1 “SLCB” and then
Choose: 1 Bank to Wallet Transfer, Enter the Amount of money in Le he or she wants to transfer.
The other step, she said, is to enter a pin code to confirm the transfer of Le xxxx Leones
With regards Wallet to Bank, a subscriber must enter the amount of money in Le he or she wants to transfer.
The next stage is to enter the individual’s pin code to confirm the transfer of Le xxxx.
In order to check Bank Account Balance the subscriber must enter his or her Afrimoney money Pin to confirm his or her request to check the bank account balance.
She ended by thanking the Management of Sierra Leone Commercial Bank for the partnership, which according to her, will help to move Sierra Leoneans to join the electronic payment systems cashless era.
“Afrimoney is proud to always be taking the lead in introducing cutting edge voice, data and fintech services in the country; thus reducing the cost, improving the speed, comfort and security with which people talk and conduct their financial transactions,” she stated furthering how they are proving once more that they talk with their actions more than they talk with words.
On his part, the Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Abdul Fidelis Turay, in his statement said it gives him great pleasure to be a part of such a commitment by the SLCB and AfriMoney to strengthen the partnership between the two entities and to enhance efforts to address the financial inclusion problem in Serra Leone.
He continued that as some may or may not be aware they did an initial launch of the Bank2Wallet and Wallet2Bank solution some almost two years ago now.
The Managing Director furthered that the solution has been literally a life saver for some of their mutual customers adding that AfriMoney recently revamped the entire platform in order to better serve the market highlighting how they gladly joined forces with AfriMoney to enhance theirs as well.
“There is a growing hunger by the people of this country to be able to conduct financial transactions securely and efficiently,” he averred adding how the B2W/W2B platform has proven to be the vehicle that provides people with not just the convenience of being able to conduct financial transactions anywhere and at any time using their mobile phones, but also to enjoy the security that institutions provide.
He mentioned that the SLCB will continue to invest in their digital infrastructures to ensure that they meet the demands of their customers while contributing to the socio-economic growth of the nation.
“We do this through partnerships with other market leaders such as AfriMoney and in such a way that customers are left wondering how they had lived without the service before,” he disclosed maintaining that indeed it is a proud moment that they converge to open up a more
robust platform than they initially started with and one that can carry both institutions further as they continue to close the gap between the banked and the unbanked population.
“I am as excited as my team has been during the development of this new platform and I am equally eager to see an exponential growth in the use of the service and an increase in customer satisfaction as a result of all the efforts my team and the AfriMoney team have put into the project,” he intimated.
He said it is his pleasure to reach the SLC-AfriMoney Bank3Wallet and Wallet2Bank service which, according to him, will now provide a broader reach across the nation.
Earlier the Head of Retail Banking at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Festus Sowa, welcomed all for gracing the occasion and expressed gratitude to the two institutions for the great efforts made so far to ensure the resuscitation of what he termed as a reasonable and affordable service that is geared towards meeting the demands of their customers.
A question and answer session climaxed the programme.
