Union Bank partners WACOT to drive financial inclusion

By Rosemary Iwuala

Union Bank has partnered with WACOT Rice Limited, a rice processing company, to financially include 6,000 local small-scale farmers in Kebbi State.

The Kebbi Financial Inclusion Drive (KFID), which will cover four Local Government Areas – Argungu, Augie, Suru, and Dandi – is a critical part of WACOT’s Argungu Outgrower Expansion Project funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) West Africa Trade Hub. The programme is set to resolve the overwhelming financial inclusion deficit within rural communities in Kebbi.

Union Bank in a statement noted that the financial inclusion initiative is being implemented with technical support from National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), to help the farmers acquire the relevant documentation and identification required to open bank accounts.

In carrying out this project, Union Bank will facilitate account opening while expanding its agency banking network to cover the areas that have been mapped out. It will also support its agents on ground with digital banking solutions to enable seamless transacting and account management.

Farouk Gumel, chairman of WACOT and Board chair, Union Bank, was on ground in Kebbi State to kick off the drive and paid a visit to Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu to discuss expanding the programme state-wide.

Speaking at a recently concluded conference of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Gumel said, “As we work towards achieving financial inclusion to reach the unbanked, we must commit the same resources and investments to rural-local customers as we have done to urban-global clients to help create the growth that will lift us all to collective prosperity.”