FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider,
has announced that it has reinforced its technology infrastructure to enable anyone in the
country open a FirstBank account through their mobile phones, without visiting any of its
branches nationwide.
Naija News NG reports that the investment in the Bank’s mobile banking infrastructure is in furtherance of the need to deepen financial inclusion in the country, enabling account opening to be carried out on its
*894# USSD banking, FirstMobile (self-service telephone banking), its website –
www.firstbanknigeria.com – as well as the Bank’s staff, through the Direct Sales Executive
(DSE) application installed on their mobile phone, ATMs and the bank’s over 55,000 FirstMonie
Agents spread across the country. Opening an account with FirstBank through any of these
means is seamless, convenient, fast, and user-friendly.
The DSE App is an end to end encrypted mobile application installed on the phone(s) of
FirstBank staff which enables them to open an account for to-be customers. Upon the
completion of the account opening process via the DSE App, the customer is notified of his or
her account number through a text message on the mobile phone used to register the account.
With FirstBank’s *894# USSD banking, various banking activities are carried out on a mobile
phone – across the four major GSM network operators in the country – without the use of the
internet. To open an account via this means, dial *894# then select ‘open an account’ to provide
the information required or by simply dialling *894*0#. The Bank currently has over 9.5 million of
its nearly 20 million customers on its USSD banking platform.
The FirstMonie Agent Banking is an agent banking initiative from the bank that is designed to
take banking closer to people, thereby bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked.
FirstMonie is a channel through which various banking activities like FirstBank account opening,
funds transfer, bill payments, data and call credit recharge services, amongst others are carried
out. The Agent Banking initiative has also contributed to reducing poverty, being responsible for
the indirect employment of over 150,000 people across the country.
According to Chuma Ezirim, Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, First Bank of
Nigeria Limited, “beyond opening an account in any of our over 700 branches, we are delighted
with the investments at reinventing our business processes over the years, especially with the
use of technology. This has been critical to staying relevant in the industry for over 126 years
and being the financial partner of the first choice to all our customers and Nigerians, irrespective
of where they are.”
Creating these virtual ways of opening a bank account with us – thus; the staff DSE App, ATMs,
FirstMonie Agents, *894# USSD banking, FirstMobile and our website – reinforces our resolve
to ensure that more Nigerians and residents have access to banking, especially through our
state of the art financial services and we remain resolute to being the key to banking, enabling
business and financial activities that would continue to propel the country’s economic growth
and development.
About FirstBank
First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading
financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 125 years.
With over 750 business locations and 55,000 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774
Local Government Areas in Nigeria, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and
corporate financial services to serve its over 15 million customers. The Bank has international
presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the
Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a
Representative Office in Beijing.
The Bank has been nimble at promoting digital payment in the country and has issued over
10million cards, the first bank to achieve such milestone in the country. FirstBank’s cashless
transaction drive extends to having more than 9.5million people on its USSD banking service
through the nationally renowned *894# banking service and over 3.5 million people on
Firstmobile platform.
Since its establishment in 1894, FirstBank has consistently built relationships with customers
focusing on the fundamentals of good corporate governance, strong liquidity, optimised risk
management and leadership. Over the years, the Bank has led the financing of private
investment in infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy by playing key roles in the
Federal Government’s privatisation and commercialisation schemes. With its global reach,
FirstBank provides prospective investors wishing to explore the vast business opportunities that
are available in Nigeria, an internationally competitive world-class brand and a credible financial
partner.
FirstBank has been named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 –
2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” of the Financial Times Group; “Best
Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker
International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by
Global Finance for 15 years. Our brand purpose is to always put customers, partners and
stakeholders at the heart of our business, even as we standardise customer experience and
excellence in financial solutions across sub-Saharan Africa, in consonance with our brand vision
“To be the partner of first choice in building your future”. Our brand promise is to always deliver
the ultimate “gold standard” of value and excellence. This commitment is anchored on our
inherent values of passion, partnership and people, to position You First in every respect.
Folake Ani-Mumuney
Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications
www.firstbanknigeria.com
