UmojaSwitch network, NMB form partnership

06Mar 2024
The Guardian Reporter
DAR ES SALAAM
News
The Guardian
UmojaSwitch network, NMB form partnership

MOST local banking transactions will no longer need to be processed offshore after NMB Bank Ltd formed a partnership with UBX (T) Ltd, which operates the Umoja Switch ATM network.

Finance deputy minister Hamad Hassan Chande (C) pictured in Dar es Salaam yesterday shortly after gracing the launch of a partnership between NMB Bank and UBX Tanzania Ltd, the latter firm managing Umoja switch ATMs serving 17 other banks. The collaboration is meant to enable customers using Umoja switch cards to withdraw cash from NMB ATMs at no extra cost and NMB customers to do the same at Umoja switch ATMs. Flanking him are NMB Bank CEO Ruth Zaipuna (L) and UBX Board of Directors chairman

Ruth Zaipuna, NMB Bank CEO, made this affirmation at the launch of the partnership with UBX (T), an information technology company engaged in operations related to the financial sector since 2000.

The strategic partnership enables NMB Bank to add its 700 ATMs to the 280 ATMs operated by banks and financial institutions grouped under the Umoja Switch franchise, marking a new era of accessibility and efficiency in banking services across the country.

An online chronicler noted in an August 2021 entry that the franchise had entered a new phase of its operations after UBX (T) Ltd acquired 65 per cent stake of UBX (T) from Business Connexion (Pty) of South Africa.

Earlier the franchise was known as Business Connexion (T) Ltd (BCX) and facilitated operations of UmojaSwitch Co. Ltd, which owns a shared network of 20 banks and financial institutions.

At the time of this acquisition, BCX (T) Ltd and UmojaSwitch Co. Ltd were working together to provide services to UmojaSwitch member banks and financial institutions, with the two companies bringing into synergy almost 15 years of partnership.

Hamad Hassan Chande, the Finance deputy minister who graced the ceremony, urged financial institutions to come up with more innovative solutions to facilitate timely access to banking services.

He said that it was important for banks and other financial institutions to work to stimulate inclusion, noting that the NMB-UBX partnership bolsters inclusion.

It adds significant value to efforts of the government to increase the number of people accessing formal financial services to reach 85 percent by 2025, he declared, appealing to other banks to join NMB and the Umoja Switch network.

NMB and 17 Umoja Switch partner banks under a single ATM network.

The NMB Bank sees the strategic interoperability partnership as a landmark moment for the local banking sector as it creates a broad shared system of automated teller machines (ATMs).

“We are pleased with this partnership as it affords our customers easy access to banking services. Now our customers at their convenience can access affordable and reliable banking services at over 1,000 ATM points across the country. That is the dividend of this partnership,” the CEO explained.

The partnership is also going to reduce operational costs of the participating banks, she said, while Sabasaba Moshingi, the UBX board chairman, said that when Umoja Switch took off in 2006 it had six members with 30 ATMs serving upwards of 2,000 customers.

The partnership will increase card usage at ATMs and reduce queues at bank branches, enhancing formal financial inclusion in the country. It also uplifts bank efficiency, whereby participating banks will reach remote areas that were previously difficult for a single institution to access by deploying ATMs.

Convenience for banks is enhanced as the collaboration reduces operating costs given that transactions conducted within the country will no longer need to go through a foreign switch.

Instead, they will be completed within the NMB and UBX network, reducing the significant operating costs previously incurred, he added.

 

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