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launched a Cell Card Account in Bulawayo.
The Cell Card is a facility that is meant to inculcate a culture of banking in the country and will see the creation of employment.
In an interview on the sidelines of the launch, Kingdom Bank managing director Mr Francoise Molife said the programme was meant to open access for banking for all people irrespective of their geographical locations.
“We have created an avenue for all people to save their money without the asking for the otherwise stringent pre-requisites. “
There are many people who were finding it very hard to access their money or open bank accounts because they lived in the remotest areas where there are no such facilities.
This one is a mobile banking and will be installed in all areas right round Zimbabwe, even in the remotest part of the country, he said.
Mr Molife said the package was open to all ages and it was very easy to apply for as they only require the person to have an identity card. We are not asking for anything from people who want to open accounts with us except their identity cards. There is no need for one to give us proof of residence because we do not need it. This is mobile banking that can be done anywhere where there is cellular phone connectivity, he said.
He said the idea behind the introduction of Cell card account was necessitated by the need to cultivate a culture of saving money in the bank.
“People can open accounts anywhere any time. We are the first bank in the country to introduce this facility to people that will see my grandmother in the rural area being able to save her money in the bank,” he said.
The managing director said it was possible to increase the amount of bank deposits in the country through cell card facility.
The amount of deposits that the banking sector accrues will stand to increase to unprecedented level given the fact that the facility is all encompassing. “If a cellular network can have five million subscribers there is no reason why banks cannot have the same number of customers.
“This is what has motivated kingdom to come up with this facility in conjunction with Inscor private Limited,” he said.
“As long as the area has a reception and person has a cellular phone he can open an account.”
The financial sector had a total of US$2,3 billion deposits at the end of last year.
Mr Molife said they were living up to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe expectation to involve everyone in the economy of the country.
The RBZ Governor Dr Gideon Gono has encouraged banks to involve themselves in activities that economically better the lives of the poor.
“He urged the financial sector to be all-inclusive and that is what we are doing.
We have put cell card machines in 500 outlets within our country and that also means empowering our people because we would create employment for the locals. “We will employ local youths to operate those machines,” he said.
The Kingdom and Inscor cell card account facility will be taken to schools where school children can save their pocket money or fees in the banks and be able to withdraw it while at school.