By Amaka ifeakandu
Lagos
Sterling Bank Plc has launched two branded phones, called One Bank and Personal Education Technology for Secondary Schools (PETSS), which serves all financial needs of customers, spread value and strategically intervenes in the nation’s education sector.
Speaking during the launch, the Executive Director, Strategy and Finance, of the Bank, Mr Abubakar Suleiman said that the primary objective of the One Bank is to deploy a brand acquisition and embellishment tool to encourage new account openings.
The One Bank is also primed to improve mobile money application use and adoption as well as deepen brand and customer relationships, Suleiman added.
He explained that the thinking behind the Sterling One Bank was the need to bring telecommunication, entertainment and finances together to enable customers to communicate, entertain, transfer and receive money; buy airtime, carry out interbank transfers as well as all financial needs.
According to him, the One Bank has provided a single phone that can replace the token given to customers as a level of authentication; saying that the once a customer logs in with his password, he can do his business seamlessly.
He said that irrespective of the customers’ network, the telecom, media content and finance work together, so it does not matter, customers can always access his bank.
The One Bank is targeted at traders, students of colleges of education, artisans and under 11 children as a means of being in touch with their parents at a cost effective rate. The branded phone is affordable while customer who wants a high-end phone can visit the bank to pre -install and firm up the arrangement.
“Suleiman however said, “we have worked with an equipment manufacturer to do this and we are not selling it at a profit. The cost is lower than the market price and the customers are given the latitude to spread the payment of N3000 over a long period of time, by paying about N200 in a month.”
He urged prospective customers to open a Sterling Bank account at designated branches of the bank and win a Sterling Bank mobile phone fully loaded with mobile applications and social media.
The bank is also deploying an on-air quiz programme – where listeners can respond to questions asked by the presenter to win a Sterling Bank branded phone.
On the second product branded as PETSS, Suleiman said that Sterling Bank has worked with a company that is driven by a passion for education to literally replace the entire curriculum for junior secondary.
ETSS is a branded tablet phone with the current curriculum including 25 years of past West African Examination Council (WAEC) question papers, answers, and textbooks that have been written and approved by the relevant board on education.
“The bulk of the credit will go to the team of Mobile Knowledge Solutions, (MKS) that have spent millions of naira to develop the product,” he explained.
“What we are doing at Sterling Bank is to back them up with our financial muscles to ensure that they acquire the hardware that will carry the content, the durability and produce at a standard cost that is affordable. What we are doing is to make it possible for people to pay for this over time through our non-interest payment window” he added.