Gate smiles all way to the till
* It was organised in conjunction with Visa in the past 3 months
* In which clients were encouraged use their Visa card for shopping
By Victor Singano Jnr, Correspondent
Limbe-based businessman, Raees Gatee managed to fill pick groceries worth K149,699 out of the offered K150,000 in First Capital Bank’s 60 seconds Trolley Dash promotion.
Advertisement
The 40 year-old First Capital Bank Limbe Branch Customer joined other customers in the promotion organised in conjunction with Visa in the past 3 months in which clients were encouraged use their Visa card for shopping and other transactions to stand the chance to win the trolley dash.
Gatee was identified during the final raffle draw conducted by the bank and was invited on Thursday to shop at Chichiri Shopping Mall’s Shoprite supermarket, that partnered with First Discount Bank as the only outlet for VISA.
Gatee was all smiles, saying this was the first time for him to win a promotion, saying the groceries he picked will help to save a lot of money to buy other household items.
Advertisement
“This opportunity will really assist me to easily do other important things without any pressure,” he said, who said he made several transactions through Limbe branch using his VISA card.
First Discount Bank Head of Marketing, Twikale Chirwa expressed satisfactory with how the promotion has been run, saying the campaign — which was launched in August this year — was mainly designed to reward and excite customers who are in turn encouraged to transact using digital means.
“Honestly, it has been a wonderful and successful promotion because we had an overwhelming response from our customers,” he said. “This is one way where we seek to rewarding our customers throughout the upcoming festival season.
“We are encouraging all our clients to heighten use of their cards as part of the bank’s current digital agenda,” he said.
Just last month, prior to the opening of this year’s academic calendar, First Capital Bank offered loans for civil servants to assist them pay school fees for their children and wards — with access of up to K3 million and a maximum repayment of 60 months based on affordability.
The target market are civil servants who are FCB customers as well as non-FCB customers, who have a valid National ID and bank statement reflecting latest salary deposit for non-FCB account holders.
Disbursement is within 24 to 48 hours upon application of the loan at competitive Interest rates with no upfront charges.
Advertisement
This was on top of another loan package named Civil Servant Loan-Zangaphee, which is aimed at giving opportunity to the customers based in both urban and rural areas for easy access to credit.
At its launch, Twikale Chirwa said the bank realized the need to introduce the Civil Servant Loan, having noticed that recently, access to credit has become an urgent requirement for many of its clients.
The loans gives opportunity to customers to access a loan — starting from a minimum of K100,000 and maximum K3 million, based on affordability and they vary from 3 to 60 months.
Chirwa added that the unavailability of mass lending solutions for customers is also one major disadvantages that cause customers to change banking services provider — hence committed to create a viable market segment for the provision of credit to the civil service employees.
Advertisement
“The bank provides credit services to all civil servants that are deducted through the centralized Malawi Payments Solutions, and this include both our existing customers but more notably would also be available to non-customers.
“This will significantly benefit civil servants who currently have limited access to credit. In addition, these customers will be given the option of becoming banked by FCB and it should noted be noted that this market is not concentrated in one place only as it will be spread out all over be it in town and districts.
The Civil Servant Loan — which can be used for purchasing of personal assets, school fees, farming, business, expansion or start up, consolidation of debts and other general purposes — also does not require any form of collateral or security as long as one is permanently employed with the Government of Malawi.—Additional reporting by Duncan Mlanjira, Maravi Express
Advertisement