Onome Amuge
United Bank for Africa (UBA) is betting that digital onboarding can help secure its position in an increasingly competitive African banking market. For years, account opening across the continent has been slow and branch-dependent, creating opportunities for fintech challengers to attract customers with faster, app-based services. Thus the lender, dubbed ’Africa’s Global Bank’ has launched a simplified instant account opening digital platform designed to make banking faster, more accessible, and truly borderless for customers across Africa and in the diaspora.
The new platform allows customers to open accounts entirely online, from identity verification to account number issuance, without an initial branch visit. UBA, which operates across 20 African countries and key global financial centres including the UK, US, France and the UAE, believes the initiative represents more than a customer-facing upgrade. It showcases a significant innovation as Africa’s traditional banks seek to remain relevant in a financial ecosystem increasingly defined by speed, convenience and digital trust.
Africa has become one of the world’s most active fintech frontiers, driven by a young population, high mobile penetration and widespread dissatisfaction with legacy banking processes. Digital-first players have captured millions of customers by offering rapid onboarding, app-based services and lower entry barriers, often without the extensive compliance frameworks of traditional banks.
UBA’s new onboarding platform is an attempt to reclaim lost ground while preserving the advantages of scale, regulation and balance-sheet strength. By enabling customers to complete know-your-customer (KYC) checks, upload documentation, verify identity digitally and gain immediate access to banking channels, the lender is adopting fintech-style efficiency within a fully regulated structure.
Digital onboarding also plays into long-standing financial inclusion goals. Despite years of policy focus, millions of Africans remain excluded from formal banking due to geographic, economic and administrative barriers. Physical branches are costly to maintain and unevenly distributed, particularly in rural or underserved areas.
By moving account opening online, UBA reduces dependence on physical infrastructure and lowers the cost of acquiring new customers. The platform’s support for both local currency (including naira) and diaspora accounts is particularly significant. Remittances from Africans abroad represent a major source of foreign exchange for several economies, yet diaspora customers often face challenges opening or maintaining accounts in their home countries.
A seamless digital process could allow banks such as UBA to deepen relationships with diaspora clients, capture cross-border transaction flows and strengthen their role in international payments, an increasingly competitive segment as fintechs and global money-transfer platforms expand aggressively.
Unlike many fintech startups, UBA has made regulatory compliance central to its digital proposition. The platform is designed to align with the Nigeria Data Protection Act as well as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a signal aimed at reassuring customers and regulators that data privacy and security are not being sacrificed for speed.
In markets where digital fraud and data misuse remain persistent concerns, regulatory credibility has become a competitive asset. Established banks are leveraging decades of compliance experience to differentiate themselves from less regulated competitors, particularly as authorities across Africa tighten oversight of digital financial services.
Oliver Alawuba, group managing director/CEO
Executives at UBA consider the platform as evidence that innovation and regulation need not be mutually exclusive. The bank argues that it can deliver fintech-level convenience while maintaining the controls expected of a systemically important financial institution.
Shamsideen Fashola, group head,retail and digital banking noted that with this launch, UBA reinforces its mission to leverage technology to democratize access to financial services, combining convenience, compliance, speed, and accessibility in one seamless platform.
“At UBA, we are committed to redefining the customer experience through innovation and simplicity. Our new Instant Account Opening platform reflects this commitment by removing traditional barriers and making it easy for anyone — whether on the continent or in the diaspora — to open an account in minutes. This fully digital solution underscores our belief that banking should be accessible, secure, and truly borderless,” Shamsideen said
Alero Ladipo, group head, brand, marketing and corporate communication remarked: “We understand that today’s customers expect speed, convenience, and compliance without compromise. With this platform, we have blended industry-leading digital onboarding with strong privacy and regulatory standards, ensuring that our retail customers enjoy a seamless account opening experience that matches global best practices.”
From a business standpoint, instant digital onboarding also alters the economics of retail banking. Branch-based account opening is labour-intensive and expensive, while digital platforms scale across borders at marginal cost. Faster onboarding shortens the path to revenue generation and allows banks to integrate customers into broader digital ecosystems more quickly.
With more than 50 million customers and 30,000 employees, UBA is among Africa’s largest financial institutions. Its move into fully digital onboarding showcasses how even established banks are being reshaped by technological change. The question is no longer whether African banking will go digital, but how quickly incumbents can adapt without losing the stability that underpins their franchises.
