First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has commenced a nationwide customer forum to educate her customers on the recent cashless policies of CBN; and solicit suggestions aimed at improving the Bank’s services, in its bid to step up engagement with customers across all segments.
With a growing emphasis on Cashless Banking to provide safer financial services to customers, FCMB recognizes the need to significantly increase access to a range of financial services, including savings accounts, payments, transfers and other products and services for its customers and the unbanked population.
The regional meetings held in Abuja, Kano, Onitsha and Port-Harcourt with overwhelming attendance recorded active participation from the Bank’s customers and select clients.
The excitement expressed by participants in the regions was an indication that the initiative was very timely.
The regional forum was also used to explain the programmes of the Bank to the customers including effective banking services.
Some of the questions asked at the forum centered on the new banking policies by CBN; how they will affect local traders as most of their businesses are being transacted in rural areas.
Customers also wanted to know about the charges intra and inter-bank transfers attract and how ready the Bank is in handling the volume of e-transactions that the cashless policy will bring.
Commenting on the need for FCMB to hold regular regional interactions with her customers and clients, Ikechukwu Kalu, group head, Marketing & Communications said: “our customer is the reason we are in business, hence the Bank’s commitment in maintaining regular contact and ensuring that information elicited through these engagements are structured into our strategic and tactical initiatives so we can be better for our customers. We take the voice of the customer seriously and we believe that information sharing is of utmost importance to the growth of our brand. The interactions in the four locations provided quality education on the CBN cashless policy and a good platform for us to receive feedback from our customers on product and services and e-channels”.
He encouraged customers to avail themselves of the cash-less inclined products of the Bank such as FCMBOnline, FCMBMobile, FCMB FlashMeCash, ATMs, Points of Sale (POS) etc as they are simple to use and secure.
Kalu said “the Customer forum along with our other effective communication platforms have been created to engage our customers and clients regularly to further strengthen our commitment to them and increase service delivery across our channels. In our efforts to serve and support smaller businesses, we have in recent times, boosted our Retail Banking expertise, as well as developed a portfolio of cash-lite and mass market banking products to ensure that all fragments of the Nigerian population, regardless of their socio-economic status, have access to the excellent services being offered by FCMB”.
Kalu who also assured the Bank’s clients that FCMB had adequate capital to support them to expand their businesses for the development of the economy, explained that the Bank had adopted strategies and put dedicated staff and resources together to meet the demands of its clients.
He stressed the need for the clients to in turn be loyal and supportive to the Bank to boost effective and efficient service delivery to customers.
The nationwide customer forum initiative is one among many, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) under the leadership of Mr. Ladi Balogun, its group managing director / chief executive officer, has lined-up to take banking to the grassroots and meet the needs of its customers to consolidate its inroad in the retail space.
With its recent restructuring into a holding company (FCMB Group Plc) which provides additional level of governance for the bank, FCMB is now better focused to shareholder and customer value.