The Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Mr. Patrick Ainwuntan, has said that the bank’s decision to charge zero fee on RapidTransfer remittances is borne out of the need to ensure Nigerians abroad are able to send home 100 per cent of monies made through hard work.
He said, “Because we are able to do it per scale and because we know that when Nigerians work abroad, close to seven per cent to eight per cent of their sweat is taken as commission when they are sending money home, we decided to make the cost of sending money home free.
“We want 100 per cent of the money, made through the sweat and hard work of Nigerians, to find its way back to Nigeria, to support and develop our economy in Nigeria. This is why we made the RapidTransfer charges zero.”
The Ecobank boss, who spoke during a round table meeting with stakeholders in Lagos, noted that “any Nigerian in the Diaspora can download the Ecobank RapidTransfer App from any of the stores, attach his or her card, say in Canada, UK or US, and remit $50, $30, £30, £25 or £100 instantly to a recipient in Nigeria.”
According to him, the recipient could have a bank account in Ecobank or any other bank in Nigeria.
He affirmed that Ecobank leveraged on the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System, which, he said, had done a great job in bringing a common settlement platform for all the banks in
Nigeria.
“The payment will get to the account of other receiving bank, because Ecobank has put together a global App available for all Nigerians, globally, to be able to send money home. We offer best exchange rate available. If your relative or friend does that transfer from Canada or Paris today, you will get an equivalent of N360 to a dollar instantly at no charge to the sender,” he said.
