Financial firm brings convenient banking solution

DAILY NEWS Reporter

CRDB Bank customers seeking physical banking services at mortar and brick branches has gone down by slightly over 30 per cent in Arusha, thanks to SimBanking revolution.

The bank, biggest in term of balance sheet in the country, said its random survey confirmed declining number of long and zigzag queues at bank halls in the last three months.

The Meru Branch Manager, Mr Leonce Matley, said for instance at his branch they normally service around 600 people per day but the number dropped to 400 per day in last three months.

“Our random survey reveals that the Sim Banking has become the most convenient and preferred service to our customers in this busiest branch in the Arusha Central Business District,” Mr Matley told reporters yesterday.

Latest CRDB data show that at the end of 2015 Sim- Banking had 1.22 million customers which was an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year while number of transaction climbed 34 per cent to 12.56million.

The Subscriber Identity Module -Sim Banking service, which is a branchless banking, allows a customer to carry out banking transactions by using a mobile phone as its underlying technology. “SimBanking is reliable for almost every transaction without necessarily going to the bank hall physically,” said Ms Esther Daniel, CRDB Bank customer.

The CRDB principal marketing officer, Mr Willy Kamwela, said the Sim Banking is accessible through the mobile phone service provider platforms namely Tigo, Vodacom, Halotel, and Airtel. “We have developed reliable systems with the view of enabling our customers to enjoy the convenience of banking on your mobile phone,” Mr Kamwela said.

Mr Richard Mushi, a CRDB Arusha based customer for eight years, said SimBanking was major revolution, as it is reliable, time saving, convenient, secure and life saving. “I do a lot of transactions through my mobile phone nowadays.

I purchase power, transfer cash and check my balance anytime, anywhere,” he said. He implores the CRDB Bank to improve the service, particularly on Luku token during weekend in a bid to avert unnecessary delays.

Bank of Tanzania data on mobile SMS banking showed the total country volume increased form 46,640,239 in 2014 to 50,642,727 in 2015 while value also increased from 1.16tri/- to 1.8tri/-.