Keystone Bank has partnered Appzone, the financial services technology provider to present the industry-leading BankOne platform to a forum of microfinance banks in Kwara State.

This is in line with the bank’s vision to expand its bouquet of products tailored for microfinance institutions. For several years the top brass of the Kwara State Association of Microfinance Banks has sought to transform the state’s fledgling microfinance sector by tackling challenges created by the level of technology adopted by most of its member firms.

Some of these problems include time consuming and error-prone manual operations, a lack of geographical spread and the inability to process cheque-based and electronic inter-bank transactions.

A statement from Appzone informed that BankOne was showcased as a technology platform that provides microfinance banks with the capacity to implement end-to-end banking automation through multiple electronic and physical channels.

The workshop highlighted BankOne’s ability to transform microfinance banks into efficient and integrated financial services firms without steep infrastructure costs.

Speakers from Keystone and AppZone lauded the “cashless” initiatives being driven by the Central Bank and highlighted the fact that BankOne had created an effective channel for low and medium income customers of microfinance banks to be fully absorbed into the new “cash-lite” society.

AppZone’s Head of Business Development for BankOne MFB services, Raji Adegoke, said: “Customers of MFBs on BankOne can use debit cards at ATMs and POS’s nationwide as well as on the internet. Customers also have their accounts linked to their mobile phones for the purposes of initiating Inter-Bank transfers and bill payments.”

The relationship between Keystone and AppZone on BankOne involves connectivity between the BankOne datacenter and Keystone Bank’s core IT/payment processing infrastructure for the purpose of seamless interoperability allowing BankOne to compliment Keystone Bank’s offerings to non-bank financial institutions while improving the bank’s competitive position within this highly lucrative and untapped niche market.