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Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
STANDARD Chartered Bank has launched the first ever digital banking unit in Africa, a milestone  meant to harness technological opportunities on the continent.

The London Stock Exchange listed bank’s regional chief executive, Mr Sunil Kaushal, said in a statement that digital banking was a result of the bank’s efforts to digitise Africa and change the way banking is conducted on the continent.

“We are pleased to launch our first digital bank in Africa with the support of the government of Côte d’Ivoire. This is a key milestone on our digital journey as a bank and underlines our commitment to investing and growing in the market.

“Digitising Africa remains at the heart of our business strategy for the region, and we look to implement our Côte d’Ivoire model across other markets in the coming months,” he said.

The bank’s regional head of retail banking Mr Jaydeep Gupta said the new banking unit was a response to customers’ demands and will improve efficiency and ease of banking. The bank’s digital services are available by downloading the Standard Chartered mobile application.

New clients can execute all their banking activities right from their mobile devices, starting by opening their bank account in less than 15 minutes.

They can also provide all verification documents by uploading to the application and fully complete their on-boarding process within minutes.

“Our new digital bank was developed with our clients in mind. We have taken into consideration the feedback received by our clients at each stage of the design process and have incorporated innovative technology to allow them to execute all banking activities from a mobile device. This includes 70 banking services through the app,” he said. — @PrinceNkosy102