Ecobank to extend innovative services to other Microfinance Banking (MfB) countries

-Targets 100m customers by 2020

Apart from effective role in commercial banking services, Ecobank Group has also been innovative in supporting Microfinance Banking (MfB) and millions of small businesses in countries were the bank is present. Ecobank Group’s presence in the micro financing has attracted regulatory commendation, as many businesses have over the years been supported thus creating more employment for the youths in countries were the Group has branches.

Following its effective role in the sub-sector and innovative service, Ecobank’s Microfinance business was recently awarded the ‘Best Microfnance Product in Africa’ and ‘Remittance Product of the Year’ by Asian Banker in recognition of its innovative digital delivery of the products.This is because, in line with the Group’s strategy of employing technology to extend its mass-market reach, its microfinance businesses is leveraging on mobile technology to reach several million more of the unbanked and under banked populations. As of 31 December 2016, Ecobank had $20.5 billion in total assets and $1.8 billion in total equity. 

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent holding company of the Ecobank Group, is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), in Accra and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilères SA (BRVM) in Abidjan.

Ecobank is organized for management reporting purposes, into three customer-centric business segments and four geographical regions. The business segments are Consumer Banking, Commercial Banking, and Corporate and Investment Bank. The geographical regions are Nigeria, Francophone West Africa (UEMOA), Anglophone West Africa (AWA), and Central, Eastern and Southern Africa (CESA).

In 2016, across Africa, Ecobank Microfinance provided smart, inclusive banking to over 4 million low-income individuals and micro-entrepreneurs, while 2 million of these are served directly by microfinance banking subsidiaries in four countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone), together with dedicated internal units in Nigeria and Mozambique

The bank’s innovative service, developed in partnership with mobile operators, the Group said enables users to open accounts and carry out transactions on their mobile phones, without physical interaction with the bank, anytime and anywhere, saying that this service, which offers convenient, cheap and easy access to financial services for the unbanked population, has great potential to fast-track increased banking penetration, noting that in less than three months, over 20,000 new clients in Ghana were on-boarded digitally.

As a result of the recorded success, the Group maintained that this innovative service would be rolled–out in the other Ecobank Microfinance countries in 2017, with the aim of acquiring millions of new clients in the medium term.

Report however, shows that Ecobank’s Microfinance Bank (MfB) subsidiaries and units are profitable, thus demonstrating that financial inclusion and providing banking to the poor and low-income people can be commercially viable. The Group equally substantiated that its twin objectives in serving the poor and low-income population of commercial and socioeconomic development focus can be achieved in any market, if the right model is applied.

It would be recalled that in 2007, ACCION, in collaboration with ECOBANK and other foreign and local partners, launched one of the largest microfinance banks in Nigeria, ACCION Microfinance Bank (AMfB) Ltd. The birth of EB-ACCION has further brightened the vision of both institutions to build a leading regional network of microfinance banks in Africa.Today, ACCION Microfinance banks are among the Microfinance institutions doing well in Nigeria.

Ecobank is a strong supporter of transformative initiatives toward the socio-economic development of Africa, including the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda. Notably, the bank has aligned its internal sustainability framework with the SDG, with a view to contributing towards achieving the United Nations,UN’s 2030 global goals. To date its efforts in the implementation of specific SDGs have been focused on Health and Wellbeing (SDG 3), Education (SDG 4), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Affordable, Clean Energy (SDG 7), Ethical Working Conditions and Economic Growth (SDG 8), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), Climate Action (SDG 13), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

These initiatives, the bank said are built on its commitment to the achievement of the Millennium (MDGs’), namely tackling poverty and hunger, improving access to energy and potable drinking water and environmental protection. In addition to direct client engagement, Ecobank also reaches several million more customers indirectly by supporting over 200 independent microfinance institutions across its footprint. This effective pan-African reach makes Ecobank Microfinance one of the largest microfinance operations and financial inclusion programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ecobank however, noted that its client base is made up of a variety of micro businesses, including traders, artisans, microprocessors and farmers. “We are able to provide them with a full range of inclusive banking products and services, including micro-savings and loans, bill payments, transfers and remittances, mobile banking and advisory services, maintaining that key 2016 initiatives towards achieving its goal of growing customer base to 100 million by 2020 have been upgrades to its digital platforms and the introduction of the Ecobank MobileApp.

Ecobank has implemented robust processes to ensure that all business units comply with all relevant laws and regulations, with the support of its Compliance department, which advises business and support functions on regulatory compliance across the footprint and has also designed a compliance programme to ensure that its activities are constantly aligned with the regulatory requirements of all the countries in which it is present.

To remain relevant in Africa’s banking world of tomorrow, Ecobank noted that traditional operating models and approaches to customer engagement, need to be changed radically. Also, in an ambition to build Africa’s best digital banking platform by 2020, Ecobank seek to leverage on its pan-African distribution capabilities and strategic partnerships to generate sustainable, long-term returns above cost of capital. The growth in mobile phone usage in sub-Saharan Africa has created an opportunity to introduce cheaper and more convenient means of servicing low-income clients in urban and remote areas.

According to the Group, in 2016, Pan-African Savings and Loans Limited, the Microfinance subsidiary in Ghana, introduced a full self-service mobile banking solution, the first of its kind in West Africa. This innovative service, developed in partnership with mobile operators, enables users to open accounts and carry out transactions on their mobile phones, without physical interaction with the bank, anytime and anywhere.

This service, which offers convenient, cheap and easy access to financial services for the unbanked population, has great potential to fast-track increased banking penetration. In less than three months, the bank disclosed that over 20,000 new clients in Ghana were on-boarded digitally. Meanwhile, through its pan-African partnership with MasterCard, Ecobank simultaneously launched Ecobank MasterPass.

Merchant Quick Response (QR ) in 28 countries, the first service of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.The Merchant QR code technology is gaining acceptance amongst Micro, Small and Large retailers and service providers as it is cost-effective relative to Point of Sales (POS) machines, consumes less electricity and reduces the risk of repudiation, whilst enhancing safety and security.

The management of the bank said “We have also come to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Visa International to implement Ecobank mVisa across our markets. Our people remain central to our ability to deliver on our goals. In 2017, our focus will be on further improvements to our customer service and driving sales, whilst exerting financial control to sustain our profitability. We have reorganized, reskilled and reinforced our team to deliver these priorities. We now operate a central manufacturing approach to leverage skills and scale in the standardization and packaging of our offerings.

Group Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, Ade Ayeyemi said “we are pushing ahead with the digital transformation of all of our business lines. Our drive for operational efficiency is yielding significant cost-savings and we are proactively resolving our legacy loan issues. I am confident that these positive developments will be reflected in an improving performance from Ecobank.

“We are seeking to build the most efficient digital banking platform in Africa, leveraging both our own and our partners’ distribution capabilities to reach 100 million customers. The application of digital technologies presents ample opportunity to expand and enhance our customer delivery channels, thereby enabling us to deliver superior customer experience and in turn, potentially increase shareholder returns.

“At first sight, attaining a customer base of 100 million within five years might appear overly ambitious. The demand is out there – Africa’s youthful demographics, the ubiquity of mobile telephony and the scale of our unbanked population are all contributory drivers. Nevertheless, we are not the only organization to see the potential of technology to bring convenient, accessible and cost-effective banking to the masses, so we need to move fast to maintain our competitive advantage. In articulating the 100 million figures,” he maintained. According to him, despite the weak macroeconomic situation, Ecobank’s 2016 revenues remained resilient at $2.0 billion, adding that pre-impairment income remained stable.

He noted that the Group is looking to strengthen Ecobank’s capital position via a proposed $400 million issue of a five-year convertible bond in the second half of the current financial year. “It will have a maturity of five years and a coupon of 6.46per cent above 3-month LIBOR, with an option to convert at an exercise price of 6 US cents during the conversion period. We are delighted with the strength of the support shown for the issue by our existing shareholders, as it both vindicates our actions and indicates their confidence in Ecobank’s future. The balance will be offered to all of our shareholders on identical terms.

About Ecobank
Incorporated in Lomé, Togo, in 1988 Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) the parent company of Ecobank is the leading independent pan-African banking group. The Group employs over 17,500 people in 36 different countries in over 1,200 branches and offices. Ecobank is a full-service bank providing wholesale, retail, investment and transaction banking services and products to governments, financial institutions, multinationals, international organizations, medium, small and micro businesses and individuals.

Listing on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières was an inevitable development for ETI, given its growth over the years. But it was the simultaneous listing on the three stock exchanges in September 2006 that made the move unique. Indeed, listing simultaneously on three stock exchanges was such a novel idea at the time that it was described as ‘the first ever regional listing in Africa’.

The triple listing of Ecobank is helping to foster greater co-ordination and harmonization among the West African region’s stock exchanges and their regulators. Ecobank’s success has prompted comments that it represents ‘pan-Africanism with profits’. ETI ownership will inevitably become more diverse as the group develops a more international profile, but this will not necessarily prevent the bank remaining Africa-focused.

The Group today
Today, Ecobank is the leading pan-African bank with operations in 36 countries across the continent. It has a larger African footprint than any other bank in the world. Ecobank currently operates in countries in West, Central, East and Southern Africa, namely Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Group also has a licensed operation in Paris and representative offices in Beijing, Dubai, Johannesburg, London and Luanda.

Awards and recognition
Ecobank’s success and leadership in bringing financial services to the unbanked is receiving increasing international attention and recognition. In 2016, the bank was selected as the ‘Best Bank in Financial Inclusion in Africa’ by African Banker magazine and also won the ‘Best microfinance product in West Africa’ category in Asian Banker’s annual awards.

Ecobank’s retail Internet banking portal was recently ranked number 1 in an independent poll, ran by Phillips Consulting in Nigeria in 2017. The bank also won the following awards in 2017: Innovation in Banking, African Bankers Awards, Remittance Product of the Year-Asian Banker Awards, Product Innovation of the Year – Retail Banker International Awards, Retail Banking Launch of the Year – Retail Banker International Awards In partnership with retail chains, Telcos and major electronic payment associations across the continent.

Ecobank Foundation
Ecobank Foundation’s vision is to be an impact-driven agent of change that contributes to the transformation and prosperity of Africa. Ecobank has chosen to focus on health, education and financial inclusion as agents of Africa’s transformation, with gender equality underpinning our engagement with communities across the continent. In 2016 the bank began implementing the Foundation’s new strategy, focused on building partnerships with like-minded organizations with an active involvement in the development of the African continent. 

To expand its community reach, “we are working closely with the Ecobank Group to maximize the potential of digital solutions to provide financial services to the communities in which we operate”, it noted.

Commercial viability and sustainability
This technology has the potential to meet the twin goals of vastly reducing the cost of providing banking services and servicing our customers in a faster and more convenient manner. By lowering servicing costs, Ecobank MobileApp will have a positive impact on Africa’s economic development, promoting financial inclusion amongst the unbanked and underbanked. Additionally, we have devised the Ecobank Xpress account that allows customers to instantly open a mobile banking account, leveraging the Know Your Customer (KYC) initiatives implemented by African Telcos.

To date, regulators in 25 countries across its footprint have approved this KYC-light account, as financial inclusion is seen as a high priority.

Ecobank has also developed its own payments platform, ensuring instant fund transfers across our network of 33 countries. This eliminates the former high tariffs on low value cross-border transfers, which were prohibitively expensive for many Ecobank customers.

Mirroring the Group’s 2016-2020 strategic plans, the consumer banking business has formulated its own ‘Roadmap to Leadership’. The bank said its priorities will be to ensure the utmost customer satisfaction at key touch points, focusing on digital distribution, with an emphasis on mobile solutions, and driving operational excellence through the implementation of a supportive organizational structure.

Ecobank Microfinance impact, reach and scale across Africa
Ecobank Microfinance provides smart, inclusive banking to over 4 million low-income individuals and micro-entrepreneurs, 2 million of these are served directly by microfinance banking subsidiaries in 4 countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone), together with dedicated internal units in Nigeria and Mozambique.

In addition to direct client engagement, Ecobank also reaches several million more customers indirectly by supporting over 200 independent microfinance institutions across its footprint. This effective pan African reach makes Ecobank Microfinance one of the largest microfinance operations and financial inclusion programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sustainability in Ecobank
In 2016, Ecobank reaffirmed its commitment to the promotion of sustainability across its footprint, whilst seeking to balance profitability with sustainable outcomes for businesses and operations. Understanding of sustainability approaches amongst senior management and staff has been enhanced and accelerated via the Ecobank Academy’s learning and knowledge platform.

Similarly, the Ecobank Day community outreach programme, together with other sustainability-related activities carried out by Ecobank’s subsidiaries, further underscore the desire to promote sustainable banking practices across the Group. Its most notable sustainability achievements in include: the introduction of the Ecobank MobileApp digital channel to promote financial inclusion, continued migration to electronic banking operations, reducing paper usage, organization of an enhanced sustainability knowledge-sharing workshop for the Ecobank Board and Group Executive Committee, and an increase in collaborative partnerships for development under the auspices of the Ecobank Foundation.

Overview of 2016
Ecobank has over 17,000 employees, representing 43 nationalities from around the world. The diversity of backgrounds and skills within its workforce plays a key role in its unique, pan-African culture. The Ecobank recognize the importance of effective positioning and how it deploys its human capital for sustainable value creation.

Alongside Ecobank’s unmatched footprint, customers and infrastructure, people are at the centre of the execution of its ‘Roadmap to Leadership’ corporate strategy.

In 2016 the Human Resources department continued to accelerate and institutionalize Ecobank’s vision of providing the business with key enablers to generate the sustainable creation of shareholder value. 

The following key strategic Human Resources areas were further strengthened in 2016: Learning and Development, Talent and Performance Management, Compensation and Benefits, Strategic Workforce Planning and People Efficiency, Organizational Effectiveness, Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion ,Improving Employee Welfare Learning and Development Building on the strong foundation of our work in previous years, the Group Learning and Development function (and its Ecobank Academy platform) continued to play a crucial role in ensuring that we develop ‘must have’ capabilities to drive the execution of our corporate strategy.

Also, within the year, Ecobank’s learning and development function reinforced its position as a catalyst for capability development and competitive advantage for our institution, enabling Group-wide functions and the subsidiary network. With our consistent, collaborative approach, we were able to respond quickly to emerging business requirements whilst continuing to focus on implementing long-term competency and assessment-driven learning interventions by designing and delivering high-impact business ‘Game Changer’ Training Programmes.

Outlook
Ecobank Group aim to create sustainable shareholder value through an ongoing emphasis on capital stewardship and efficient capital allocation, the Board is confident that Ecobank will generate more than satisfactory returns, once its legacy issues have finally been resolved. The Group now stabilized the situation and is making real progress in dealing with the outstanding issues.

In 2017, the bank is committed to introducing half-yearly auditing of the Group’s accounts in line with international best practice and to improve earnings transparency. “Our diversified business model provides resilience, our scale advantage enables strong partnerships with leading multinationals and development finance institutions active in Africa, and we have loyal, strategic shareholders. All this, together with the unceasing dedication of our employees, allows your Board to approach 2017’s continuing challenges with well-founded confidence.

Ecobank’s Brand
Three key pan-African elements underpin the Ecobank brand: The largest banking platform in Africa, a diverse talent pool, quality customer service. While Ecobank’s 20,331 employees make the group the largest employer of labour in the financial sector in Middle Africa, the bank operates as “One Bank” with common branding, standards, policies, and processes. 

This makes for consistent and reliable service to over 10 million customers across this unique network of 1,265 branches, 2,690 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), and 13,800 Point of Sales (POS) machines. The bank runs an integrated information technology platform, with all of its operations successfully migrated onto a single core banking application.

Corporate Governance
Ecobank recognizes the importance of Corporate Governance in building a sustainable and cohesive organization and seek to implement the highest standards and best practice in corporate governance in accordance with the most widely accepted corporate governance codes thereby ensuring fairness, transparency and accountability to shareholders and other stakeholders.

As an independent pan-African banking group, founded on the spirit of regional co-operation and the economic integration of African countries, Ecobank acknowledges the critical nature of its relationships with all the regulatory bodies across our footprint in executing its vision and discharging responsibilities with respect to customers, lenders, shareholders and the communities within which it operate.

This ensures that their needs and interests are taken into account in a balanced and transparent manner. Ecobank believes that only good governance will deliver sustained business performance and, ultimately, appropriate returns for shareholders.