Investment in agency banking will soon bear fruits, says dfcu

Dfcu is seeking to move 50 per cent of core operations to agents. PHOTO BY ERONIE KAMUKAMA

Efforts by banks to grow the number of agents across the country will soon see banks lower the cost of operations, dfcu Bank has said.
“2,000 agents have been on-boarded. We give them targets in terms of cash in, on opening accounts and we want them to bring in another million accounts. We want to start moving 50 per cent of core operations to the agents. Once the cost of sales comes down, it brings down our cost of doing business,” Mr Robert Wanok, the dfcu head of personal and business banking, said.
He was speaking at the signing of a partnership between dfcu Bank and Vivo Energy Uganda, which will allow the active 460,000 account holders to make cash deposits, withdrawal, pay utility bills and do money transfers through agents at 40 selected Shell fuel service stations across the country for now.
“We have more than 7,000 transactions per day and that is significant. It is a major contribution to transaction flow and reduction of foot flow into the banking hall. This frees up the banking hall for more value added services to customers but also eases turnaround time across the other channels. Looking to the future, it will continue to grow in significance. Right now the growth of the agency banking channel is good,” Mr Mathias Katamba, chief executive officer dfcu Bank, said.
On the other hand, Vivo Energy views the opportunity as diversifying from its core business but there are concerns about safety of large transactions at the fuel stations.
“We are exposed to security issues at the fuel stations but we have security guards, CCTV cameras, intrusion alarms and if anyone tries to break in, the security company is notified. We have a minimum cash policy on the station and our partners also come with their own measures when it comes to protecting their customers’ cash,” Mr Gilbert Assi, the Vivo Energy managing director, said.