First-Bank of Nigeria Gets Thumps-Up From Interswitch

First Bank of Nigeria Limited has been recognised by Interswitch Group, Africa’s leading integrated payment and transaction processing company, as the first financial institution in the country to achieve sustained transaction volumes of 100 million transactions, first in December 2015 and again in May 2016.

A statement from the bank explained that the record transaction volumes represented the total transactions processed by FirstBank’s Front End Processor running on the Interswitch transaction switching platform which links all financial institutions in Nigeria to facilitate better and quicker transactions across all platforms.

With over 12 million customers’ accounts, the bank stated that the feat aligned with its strategic intent to promote financial inclusion, support the cashless policy drive of the Central Bank of Nigeria and boost economic growth via e-payments across Nigeria and the African continent.

According to the Bank’s Group Head, e-business, Chuma Ezirim, FirstBank remains committed to lead the drive to move the Nigerian economy away from traditional cash and other generic payment means to modern technological varieties in e-Payment.

Reacting to the development, Divisional CEO, Switching and Processing, Interswitch, Akeem Lawal commented: “It really says something about the strength and development of electronic transactions in Nigeria that a single banking partner can record 100 million transactions in a single month. When you add this figure to that of our other partners, then you can begin to have an idea of the sheer size and demand for electronic financial services in Nigeria.”

Also speaking, the MD/CEO of FirstBank, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, said that the bank will continue to employ novel approaches in providing secure and convenient banking services to its customers and promised to drive innovation and extend its leadership of the financial sector services with specialised and technology-driven products and services.

“FirstBank’s investment in e-business reflects our commitment to promoting financial inclusion which is widely regarded as a lever for sustainable economic growth and development as well as enhancing entrepreneurship. Our passion to serve and extend financial services to the unbanked has since inspired several innovations and we thank our esteemed customers for their continued patronage and trust in our services whilst dedicating the recognition to them.”