Diamond Bank, MTN mega partnership for customer new experience

Imagine taking a taxi ride from the Murtala Mohammed Airport Ikeja, to your destination and having to pay the cab driver, just by pressing few buttons on your mobile phone. Better still, how about sending some money from your location in Lagos, to your aged parents in far away cities just by pressing buttons on your mobile telephone; while your parents also receive the funds through their own mobile phones, without having to leave the comfort of their home for the nearest bank which could be several kilometres from their location.

If these two scenarios amaze you, then the next may just be unbelievable to you. Can you imagine a situation where you can access micro-credit from your bank without having to visit the bank and all you need do is press few buttons on your phone? Your request is responded via your phone, your credit rating is accessed via your phone, you get approval for your micro-credit on your phone and the funds disbursed to you on your phone!

Just like it was some fourteen years ago, when owning a mobile phone was a pipe dream to Nigerians, the above scenarios may look far-fetched for now, but in far away Kenya, they are already living this dream, while a host of other East African countries have followed suit.

The recent unveiling of the Diamond Y’ello Account, a mobile telephone banking product, the first of its kind in Nigeria, is about to push the frontiers of banking in Nigeria, to a whole new level and change the face of banking in Nigeria, forever.

The Diamond Y’ello Account (DYA), the outcome of a partnership between Diamond Bank Plc and Nigeria’s leading telecommunications and ICT Company, MTN is a long awaited service that many observers and analysts have wondered why it took so long for it to debut in Nigeria.

With the success already recorded in Kenya in this regard, it has become an obvious fact that paying for a taxi ride via one’s mobile phone is easier in the city of Nairobi than in the city of New York, thanks to M-PESA, a mobile telephone banking product launched in Kenya in 2007.

At the unveiling of DYA in Lagos recently, not a few were amazed by the revelation made by the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Alex Otti, as he reeled out the various services available to subscribers through the Diamond Y’ello Account. The DYA, according to  Alex Otti, will enable its userS to open an account, save money, make purchases and even apply for loans, all through their mobile phones.

More encouraging is the fact that Nigeria is blessed with a massive population of over 160 million people out of which over eighty million are already connected to one or more, of the four telecommunications service providers in the country.

MTN currently has over 58 million subscribers on its telecommunications network. Little wonder, Diamond Bank decided to partner MTN, Nigeria’s telecommunications service provider with the largest subscriber base, in delivering this banking product to the populace. The implication of this exciting synergy is that all the over 58 million subscribers on MTN’s network can open this account and access all basic banking services easily.

More exciting is the fact that, through extrapolation, Diamond Bank which before the launch had a customer base that is about five million, now has a potential to grow its customer base to about 63 million, through the robust telecommunications network of MTN. Invariably, MTN’s telecommunications network therefore doubles as bank branches in their areas of coverage: our homes, in transit, in the market or office and interestingly, the remote areas where banking services are yet to reach.

The multi-dimensional benefits derivable from initiatives such as this, has potential, not only to change the face of banking in Nigeria, but to also change our way and manner of doing business, impact our lifestyle, give a boost to the CBN’s cashless policy and most importantly, give succour to the economically active poor in the society.

It will amaze many, that just at the dial of  *710# on your mobile phone, you are ushered into a brand new world of banking services almost equal to what you get when you are in a banking hall. The relief this product, therefore, brings to Nigerians is better experienced than imagined, as it completely eliminates the stress that the banking public is always made to go through in opening even an ordinary savings account.

It is expected that, the Federal Government through its relevant ministries like the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should show much interest in the success of banking products like the DYA, knowing full well, its potential impact on the economy. This is a telecommunications enabled banking product that will aid in no small measure, the financial inclusion drive of the government, while greatly reducing the volume of unbanked cash in circulation. With a high potential to convert a huge chunk of the players in Nigeria’s thriving informal sector to the formal sector, the Diamond Y’ello Account is an initiative that even the government should be interested in.

With 19 million subscribers to M-PESA of Kenya’s population of 44 million, Kenya is already a global reference point in mobile telephone banking service, but Nigeria, with its massive population has a natural advantage to overtake Kenya in this regard, and become the world’s biggest success story in mobile telephone banking.

With this trail blazing initiative by Diamond Bank and MTN, other banks and telecommunication companies are indeed encouraged to emulate the giant strides of these awesome two, by coming up with products like the Diamond Y’ello Account.

While giving kudos to Diamond Bank Plc and most especially MTN, whose robust network and huge subscriber base made the DYA a possibility, the government and other stakeholders are also called on to play their part in ensuring the success of this initiative and in the process, create a revolution on Nigerian financial landscape.