- First Bank, which is one of Nigeria’s leading banks, has unveiled a new cross-border payments service called First Global Transfer – and it will be available to people across the African continent, not just existing customers.
- The firm said that customers could walk into in-person branches in one of many African nations, including Senegal, the Gambia or Sierra Leone.
- First Bank describes itself as Nigeria’s “premier commercial bank”, and is active across many of financial services sub-sectors in the country.
A leading bank in Nigeria has announced the commencement of a new cross-border payments service covering sub-Saharan Africa.
First Bank of Nigeria said that its First Global Transfer service will help boost cash transfers across the continent.
It will use First Bank’s network of subsidiary organisations, which are spread across Africa, to do this.
However, the new service will be open to any customer, even if they are not an existing client of First Bank.
In fact, the service will be able to be accessed by residents in countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
All that a new potential customer has to do to access the new service is to go to one of the in-person branches of First Bank or its smaller brands.
These are located in Nigeria but also in a number of other major nations and markets across the continent, as well as Ghana or the Gambia.
The service is also available in major markets such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Senegal.
In a statement to the press, the firm’s chief executive officer Dr. Adesola Adeduntan said that technology was having a strong impact on the way that customers did business in the online money transfer sphere.
Dr. Adeduntan added that this fact was driving his firm’s decision to implement the First Global Transfer system in African communities to help them move cash in a more effective manner.
“Today’s customer is influenced by the technological advancement shaping businesses across various industries and our First Global Transfer (FGT) initiative is one of those advancement created to impact every individual in our host community in Africa,” he said.
He added that this would happen “whilst promoting the ease and swift transfer of money from one country to another for business or personal activities”.
First Bank describes itself as the main commercial bank in the country.
It offers customers a range of services, including mortgages, currency accounts and more.
The latest news about its new cross-border transfers service comes shortly after the company revealed that it is going to donate around 1bn Nigerian naira to a coronavirus relief fund.
The company made the donation, which is worth around £2m or around US$2.6m, to the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID).
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