Unity Bank targets underbanked Women with new marketing penetration campaign

Unity Bank Plc has deployed a new marketing campaign targeted at reaching millions of women entrepreneurs, especially the underbanked across Nigeria with its new retail product, the Yanga account.

Starting August 2022, the lender shall deploy strategic marketing campaigns leveraging several channels including the traditional and digital media to drive value proposition and increased adoption of the Yanga product.

The Yanga account, which was launched by the lender in November 2021 in line with Unity bank’s strategic vision of being “Nigeria’s retail bank of choice” debuted in four geographical locations: Mararaba/Nassarawa state, Ibadan/Oyo state, Uyo/Akwa Ibom state and Gombe/Gombe state.

Commenting on the new Yanga Market Penetration Campaign, Olufunwa Akinmade, divisional head, retail and SME, stated that “having launched the Yanga Account, unveiled Veteran Actress, Sola Sobowale as “Mama Yanga’’, the new campaign is intended to further provide the engagement platform to empower core target of the product existing in our communities and found amongst millions of underbanked women”.

The product targets women entrepreneurs in the Micro, small and medium enterprises, MSME space, especially the underbanked, offering savings and investment, capacity building, agency banking, dedicated agents, medical insurance and microloans to the women, thereby deepening financial inclusion.

The marketing drive includes a well-targeted television commercial featuring the bank’s brand ambassador, the award-winning Nollywood actress, Sola Sobowale who was crowned “Mama Yanga” at the launch of the product in November last year because of her strong appeal to the target market. Across the multiple channels deployed for the campaign, “Mama Yanga” will be sharing the stories of how Yanga is empowering women and changing lives across Nigeria.

Yanga is available to all women entrepreneurs nationwide, even as the bank continues to drive strategic activations of the product across various locations in the country. So far, the activation train has been to Lagos, Nasarawa, Gombe, Akwa Ibom, Port Harcourt and Ibadan.

Seeking to promote financial inclusion and cater to the unbanked women entrepreneurs, the new retail product is designed to deepen its beneficial impact on Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operated by women in the mass-market retail space.

The product comes on the heels of Nigeria’s growing imperative to boost access to financial services by women as a recent EFInA report, suggests, “There are 51 million Nigerian women above 18 years of age, with over 41 percent of them unbanked.”

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.