By Foday Moriba Conteh
On the 6th February 2021 the United Bank of Africa (UBA) launched its latest product or portfolio known as Saturday Banking at its Head Branch on Charlotte Street in Freetown.
Managing Director of UBA Sierra Leone, Usman Isiaka stated that following growing requests from their customers to extend banking services to cover weekends, the Management of the bank decided to offer Saturday Banking starting from February 6, 2021 across all branches.
He intimated that the Saturday banking will improve customers’ perception of UBA as a customer focused bank and this will improve their customer service rating in the market.
“It will place UBA a step ahead of other banks since no other is currently offering this service in Sierra Leone” he furthered and added how it will also make prospective customers open accounts with the bank mainly because they offer Saturday banking.
He disclosed that the initiative is also expected to have positive impact on their deposit growth as they take advantage of it to acquire new customers and grow their share of wallet of existing customers.
According to him it will reduce the risk of their customers who usually have to carry their Saturday sales home over the weekend.
He said it will further delight their customers in line with the Bank’s new customer Experience mandate.
The MD revealed that Banking Halls will open to customers at 10am and close at 2pm maintaining that Staff, scheduled for each Saturday, will be expected to resume 30 minutes before the opening time.
Giving a run-down of the services the bank will offer during Saturday banking he said they will include Cash deposit ,Cash withdrawals, Card issuance and other digital banking enrollments, Clearing cheque deposits (to be sent to clearing on the following weekend),in-house funds transfers (within UBA Accounts),Remittances (Africash, Moneygram, Western Union, RIA, Remit, etc.).
Dilating on the branches that will be open for the Saturday Banking Usman Siaka said it will take place at all their branches located at the heart of market/business centres.
He underscored that for BO and Makeni, Saturday banking will take place adding that when other branches are opened in the future, Management will review the business activities around each of the branches and decide if Saturday banking should hold in those branches or not.
The Managing Director informed that staff that will participate in Saturday banking shall be limited to the following roles only: Customers Service Managers (CSMs), Cash Officers(COs),Front Tellers ,CMC Tellers, Bulk Tellers , Customer Relations Officers (CROs), Remittance Agents Support Officers ,Head of Operations, One Marketer per branch, One CMC.
He stated that the following preparations shall be put in place towards a successful Saturday Banking: Every branch shall draw up a Saturday Banking Duty timetable to cover a three-month period which will allow every staff to plan properly, every Friday prior to the Saturday banking the HOP shall make all necessary arrangements for user access control to ensure the smooth running of the service.
The MD said the HOP shall obtain and share with all branches, the list of user Admin officers that will be on duty in head office.
He said the HOP shall ensure availability of cash for the Saturday banking, shall ensure the strict adherence of the 2pm closing time to ensure the staff that participated in the Saturday banking can get enough rest before the next weekend.
He also revealed that each CSM should ensure all the banking halls and washrooms are cleaned on the night prior to the Saturday banking.
The MD further stated that the tickets and vouchers processed during the Saturday banking shall be kept in the vault and retrieved on the following weekend morning to be added to the tickets that will be processed on the following weekday.
