TAJBank, Nigeria’s most innovative non–interest financial institution has launched TAJXPRESS, the bank’s full-service financial inclusion suite as part of its drive to significantly boost financial inclusion in the country.
The financial inclusion suite includes a digital wallet, *898# USSD code, 360-degree account onboarding through mobile and internet banking platforms in addition to 10,000 agents spread across the North East and North West regions of Nigeria.
Reiterating the bank’s commitment to boost financial inclusion in the country, the Chief Operating Officer, TAJBank, Mr Hamid Joda noted that “Currently statistics on financial inclusion are daunting. In a population of almost 200 million people, financial inclusion rate is around 63.5% which means that tens of millions of Nigerians are not in the financial system.
“This is an urgent mandate for us as an institution. Because for us, this is a clear indicator that in order to achieve an optimal level of financial inclusion in Nigeria, it is imperative that the unbanked and underserved are consistently empowered to further inspire growth and development of our economy. As such, we have created TAJXpress, a financial inclusion suite leveraging on our innovative technological infrastructure to ensure deployment of our financial inclusion service across all states within our catchment area.”
The Chief Marketing Officer, Mr Sherif Idi, noted several peculiarities of the existing financial ecosystem and environment “Progress has been slow in improving financial inclusion and this has been bedevilled by several challenges such as poor infrastructural challenges, low literacy rate and more. Carefully considering these peculiarities, we’ve decided to implement this initiative and serve our customers in areas which may have hitherto not enjoyed or may not be able to enjoy our products and services.
“Of course, the attendant benefits are obvious as this provides easy and convenient access to financial services and products for our customers and seamless access to bespoke products that fit the needs of the target market.”
As such, TAJXpress, one of the signature products from our financial inclusion suite, intends to make major inroads into this sector which has significant implications for financial services.
The bank’s agency banking network will span 13 states in the North West and North East areas of the country comprising Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Federal Capital Territory, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara and the FCT. The Bank also hopes to create job opportunities for Nigerians through the Agency banking infrastructure.
