GCB Bank has launched a new mobile banking service that links the bank accounts of clients with their mobile money wallets.
The service, known as GCB Mobile Banking, allows customers of the Bank to perform various financial transactions from the comfort and privacy of their mobile phones.
“The financial landscape in our country is rapidly changing. We are seeing some interesting changes in consumer preferences so far as financial services are concerned. As such, we are launching the GCB Mobile Banking service in response to our customers’ needs and preferences,” Chief Operating Officer (COO) of GCB Bank, Samuel Sarpong noted.
The COO said a few years ago GCB branches were noted for queues as a result of the many customers the bank served. He, however, added that a visit to most of Bank’s branches, today, shows no queues and empty banking halls although GCB processes a much higher number of transactions daily.
“Most of our customers previously would walk into our branches to check their account balances and withdraw less than GH₵500. Today, almost all of these transactions are done on the ATMs and on the phone,” Mr Sarpong stated.
He said Ghanaians have changed the way they relate to their financial service providers and that customers have now made it clear that they want their financial service providers to talk to them and interact with them differently.
The GCB Mobile Banking service works on the Unstructured Supplementary Services Data (USSD) platform, commonly referred to as ‘short codes’ thus customers do not need internet or a sophisticated phone to access the service. Customershave to dial *422# to access the service.
“Even the popular ‘yam’ and ‘timber’ phones can deliver the service. GCB has, indeed, brought banking services to the remotest of places in Ghana so far as there is mobile phone connectivity,” the COO said.
Other services available on the new mobile banking service include buying airtime; payments of bills to merchants like DSTV, GoTV, etc.; funds transfer from one GCB account to another; payment of school fees; amongst others.