Efficient mobile financial services will reduce banking cost

Bank customers could benefit from heavily reduced transaction costs if integration of mobile financial services such as MTN Mobile Money achieve greater efficiency.

That is the verdict of the Chief Information Officer of Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited, Tunji Alabi, who said more people and businesses need to sign up onto the mobile financial services to reap the enormous benefits.

Tunji was a major testament of the benefits Fidelity Bank had realized from partnering with MTN Business at the 4th MTN Business Fair this year, held Wednesday at the La Palm Royal Beach in Accra.

 “The whole idea is that as competition increases, banks will not be able to charge any money for banking services, it’s going to be seen as value added. The only way we can get to that level is if there is efficiency in the way we operate so that the cost to operate becomes as close to zero as possible and that’s what we are working towards by ensuring that we have operational efficiency in everything we do. The ultimate beneficiary is the customer,” he explained.

The bank’s long list of successful partnerships with MTN include a cardless MTN Mobile Money cash-out on Fidelity Bank Ghana’s ATMs, a USSD-Mobile Banking App for over 500,000 retail banking customers, Access Point Name (APN) access links with over 500 points of sale, Wide Area Network (WAN) links of 109 ATMs of 80 branches and ISDN link for call centres.

The MTN Business Fair held on the theme “Sharing the values of growth for businesses” showcased an array of products and services that underscored today’s essence of technology as an enabler to empower businesses of all sizes.

Featured products included MTN Vehicle Tracking, MTN SmartCam, MTN Eazifon, MTN Audio Conference, MTN Caller Tunez, MTN Directory, MTN Mobile Money, MTN APN, MTN Cloud Services, MTN Data Center Co-location and hosting services.

According to the General Manager of MTN Business, Samuel Addo, the fair initiative was to demystify the company’s bouquet of technology solutions and through the interactions transform businesses, reduce operational expenditures and maximize benefits.

“MTN Ghana’s Business Fair has come to stay. It is the platform that we continue to explore to stay in touch with the business community. MTN finds the need to interact with the business community to establish itself as the place where individuals and organisations in the corporate world meet to take advantage of the varied tailor-made solutions and products that MTN Business offers to optimize the productivity of SME’s and expand their businesses,” he said.

In recommending MTN’s “robust infrastructure” for businesses, Samuel Addo said as a testament of the company’s continuous investment in the right infrastructure for the industry, MTN emerged the only mobile operator to have excelled in the first ever data quality of service test conducted by the National Communications Authority in the Upper East and Upper West regions.

And according to MTN’s Michael Ghartey in charge of ISPs and Bulk Carriers, the services not only deliver convenience, simplicity, visibility and control, MTN has grown to be the ICT partner of choice for both business and geographic expansion.

Mr Sofience Marzouki, Managing Director of hellofood Ghana, an online food ordering site with operations in about 46 countries who spoke on the need to integrate mobile money into business operations, also testified of the immense benefits of the MTN Mobile Money service and said apart from providing a payment platform convenient for both company and clients, it has also helped win the trust of customers and cut the frustrations of delivery personnel who usually were confronted with issues of seeking change for customers who paid cash.