Traders in Kampala, have expressed gratitude to banks for introducing agency banking that has helped them to bank after working hours.
Since the commencement of agency banking, hundreds of agents have sprouted across the city, with agency locations. Traders that have interacted with agency banking have had kind words for the system.
“The new agents who can bank our money even at 10pm, have helped us to do business than before, “ Saidat Nantume, a business woman with a boutique on William Street told this newspaper.
Agency banking is a system where agents who are affiliated with banks can make deposits and withdrawals from specialized machines designed to do that. The agent buys float and transacts for as long has he or she has float.
The emergence of agency banking has turned the tide for banks against the threat of mobile money, that has decentralized financial transactions. Mobile money services had rendered traditional or mainstream banks almost irrelevant, because they could store huge sums of money and be accessed at will. Some telecommunication networks had also introduced teller machines that could deposit very large sums of money even without the existence of a human operator, a move seen to be highly competitive for banks.
So far Stanbic Bank, Equity Bank, and DFCU are the front runner banks in the agency banking business.
