Posted by By ALEX AKAO on
Barring any hitches, Skye Bank is set to extend full banking services to its customers at its mini branch in the Palmsmall
Barring any hitches, Skye Bank is set to extend full banking services to its customers at its mini branch in the Palmsmall, a shopping arcade also known as Shoprite, in Aja, Lagos State. According to a Senior Manager in charge of the branch, Mrs Ronke Bolu, the Shoprite mini branch would provide customers with a portfolio of friendly services which include weekend and Sunday banking, 24-hour ATM services every day of the year, and extended service hour of 8 am to 6 pm on week days, in addition to all routine banking services available at any Skye Bank branch.
She stated: " On weekends and Sundays, the Shoprite mini-branch operates to make banking services available to shop owners who may want to make cash withdrawals and lodgement. One of the value-added services available to customers of the bank at the Shoprite mini branch, according to Bolu, is consumer finance, by which customers get opportunity to obtain loans from the bank for lifestyle expenses.
The branch also gives out loans to personal computer firms in a deliberate policy to support the penetration of computing culture into the society."
Bolu explained further that the special attraction of the various loan types available to customers at the branch is that they are facilities that could be closed in a transaction period of 24 hours.
She observed that customers at the shopping mall have come to prefer Skye Bank because of its custom-tailored services.
She reported that a survey of bank customers in the mall found that 50 per cent of them use Skye Bank to meet their banking needs, a strong leadership in a market of three banks. The senior manager explained that one of the unique values that customers get at the Shoprite outlet is the extra two hours that they have for last minute transactions at the mall as the branch remains open till 6 pm on weekdays after the competition closes at 4 pm, noting that for traders, those extra two hours are crucial for last minute lodgement and cash withdrawal.
Bolu, who is also manager in charge of the Adeola Hopewell branch of Skye Bank, said the branch is equally experiencing an upswing in customer traffic. By her account, 60 new big-ticket accounts are opened in the Adeola Hopewell branch weekly.
She explained that the new size of the bank as a result of the consolidation has helped significantly in enhancing consumer confidence and given the bank both the capacity and visibility to play big in the marketplace. She also acknowledged "strong management support to the branch" as part of the factors accounting for the increase in the volume of business reported.