Within its first 100 days of introduction, Polaris Bank’s Agency Banking initiative, SurePadi, has serviced over half a million customers impacting directly an estimated two million households across the seven business regions of the Bank nationwide.
Beyond the direct impact on customers and households in Nigeria, the sheer volume and value in financial numbers on the gross earnings of the Bank has been significant as the Agency recorded giant strides in the number of services and transaction volumes it processed which was valued N10 billion.
The Bank in a statement quoted its Chief Digital Officer (CDO), Mr. Dele Adeyinka, as explaining that, in the first 100 days of introducing SurePadi, it had carried out over 500,000 services, and transaction volume above N10billion directly servicing over two million households, giving them easy access to cash for businesses and family needs.
According to Adeyinka: “As a result of this milestone, SurePadi was ranked 5th in Q1, 2020 by the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facility (SANEF) report—an indication that it is bridging the gap and helping people to meet their needs of accessing funds; as well as sending money to their loved ones.”
The CDO further stated that: “This is also part of Polaris Bank’s ongoing effort to drive financial inclusion among the underbanked and unbanked in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) regulatory mandate; intimating that ‘from what we have seen so far, we are already making significant progress in this regard.”
“With SurePadi’s spread across far-flung areas nationwide, this laudable initiative by the Bank has shown another way to bank—without physically visiting a bank’s branch—which allows the customer to make cash deposits, transfer money and enjoy other banking services like bills payment and purchase of airtime amongst others”, he opined.
SurePadi Agents ensure individuals in the suburbs do not have to travel long hours to the city for their basic banking needs. This is because the gap between the tech-savvy and the low literacy clients has been bridged by the Agent who represents a convenient and comfortable alternative.
Aside from cash deposits and transfers, Polaris SurePadi is also intended to attract prospects to a host of other products and services that could better their lives as they enjoy the ease, convenience and cost-saving benefits from completing transactions in the comfort of their locality.
SurePadi offers financial benefits for stakeholders with the Bank’s introduction of viable partnerships with Supermarkets, Retail outlets, dealers in FMCG, Petrol Stations, etc. It is unique with comprehensive features to solve financial needs as users now have the opportunity to complete transactions to solve emergency needs without visiting the Bank.
In this COVID-19 era, where movement is restricted in some major parts of the world—including Nigeria, this platform also serves as one of the many measures by Polaris Bank to support the need to promote social distancing and reduce drastically where physically possible, interactions of customers in bank branches in line with protocols of preventing the spread of the disease.
