STANDARD Bank and MTN Swaziland will soon be launching mobile banking in the Kingdom, The Observer said.
Meanwhile, the two companies have partnered to offer a mobile top-up service, where customers can now load airtime from the ATM. Speaking during the service’s launch yesterday morning, Standard Bank Managing Director Tineyi Mawocha said this was a step in the right direction to launching a fully fledged mobile banking service.
“You will notice that in the coming months we will launch mobile banking as a full package product and MTN will be partners so that customers can do banking using their cellphones,” he said.
“The use of technology is one way of spreading our reach without the cost of additional infrastructure. It is in this spirit that our partnership with MTN was born. We can leverage their footprint in the Kingdom and deliver services simultaneously to common customers.”
Mawocha said even though the partnership with MTN was predicated on a business symbiosis, it was also driven by the bank’s desire to ensure that it drives and delivers all its products electronically.
“This is a partnership we cherish and we are excited that we’re providing convenience to those customers who will be doing banking at any time of the day as the ATM top-up service will be operating 24 hours a day,” said the MD.
Regional Manager Wesley Groening said because of technological advances, through the bank’s network of ATMs countrywide, Standard Bank would be able to offer more value-add services.
He explained that with the mobile top-up service, which is free of charge, a customer needs to select other services on the ATM prompts, then select mobile top-up and denomination, after which their account would be debited and a voucher with the airtime would be printed out.
MTN Swaziland Acting CEO Thokozile Vilakati-Jele said the company was very proud to be working in partnership with Standard Bank. She added that MTN marvelled at the strides it had taken since inception 10 years ago to bring its customers an exciting menu of products, such as ATM top-up and services aimed at enhancing communication for the 21st century Swazi.
“This launch further demonstrates our commitment towards ensuring that our customers enjoy the benefits of relying on a visionary company with cutting edge mobile communication technology to provide solutions for them,” she said.
Vilakati-Jele noted that MTN Swaziland views itself fortunate to be working with a subsidiary of the Standard Bank Group, which has one of the biggest single networks of banking services in Africa, offering a wide range of products and services delivered though more than 1 000 points of representation in 17 countries.
“This will definitely add value to the ATM top-up we a re launching and strategically complement other services we hope to launch in the near future,” she said, “primary of these is the prepaid roaming that will allow our customers to use their numbers beyond our network and borders of the country.”
She said by launching the ATM top-up service, MTN was providing its customers an avenue to be able to reload airtime at any of Standard Bank’s ATM units around the country.
“This will make MTN airtime available everywhere you go at all ATM points at every hour,” she said, adding that a lot of time and effort had been spent working on the service to ensure it was ready for the market.
Vilakati-Jele further assured customers that minimum problems were anticipated and the companies would be monitoring the service to ensure it delivers on expectations.
“We hope this extra service will provide the bank with a competitive edge by adding value to the total banking experience of its customers,” she added.
I transferred US$1,000 from my Guernsey account to a Standard Bank account in Namibia and they “lost” (stole, perhaps?) the money. It took dozens of phone calls to Standard in Namibia and in South Africa and the funds were never accounted for.
This new “service” sounds like another way they can collude with a monopoly player to rip off members of the public who are foolish enough to trust them.
Don’t buy it is what I say!