United Bank of Africa (UBA) targets a new block of customers with a novel product tailored to meet needs from teenage years to adulthood.
“Next-Gen”, a personal current account, offers special privileges and opportunities to holders, including enrolling for savings account.
UBA Executive Director (Treasury and International Banking), Femi Olaloku, said Next-Gen aims to capture and engage “the next generation of educated and enlightened professionals, employees, entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, from all walks of life, early in their financial life cycle.”
It is designed to appeal to the educated and enlightened teenager and young adult from ages 13 to 34.
“This is a product that grows with the customer from his or her teenage years to when he or she becomes a young adult. Next-Gen is unique in the banking industry because it is not really a product. It is a partnership where the bank is taking on a mentorship role to guide customers into a future life of prosperity,” Olaloku explained.
It takes care of the unique needs of teenage customers when they are in secondary school, through university, to when they get their first job, start a family and consider building their first home.
“At each of these critical stages in their lives, the Next-Gen account provides financial options and opportunities to make life more comfortable for them and their families.”
UBA Head of Current Accounts and Credit Products, Iyke Idukpaye, explained that teenagers who open a Next-Gen account will become part of the UBA Teen Fan Club which offers opportunities and networking.
As they grow and gain admission into tertiary institutions, he said, they will enjoy mentorship, internship and career advisory reserved only for holders of the account.
They will also have access to 24-hour online banking, besides other privileges like branded MasterCard, interest bearing savings accounts, career advisory, scholarship, work place experience with the UBA Group, entrepreneurial skills development workshops and social media engagements.
The launch was attended by students from different secondary and tertiary schools.
One of them, Aina Oyawande, a student at the University of Lagos, commended UBA for introducing the product, saying the incentives will make her open an account with the bank.
Falz, a musician, who counseled the students to imbibe a savings culture, described Next-Gen as a “great initiative” which will attract young entrepreneurs like him to open an account with UBA.
Ebuka Obi-Uchendu of big brother fame described the product as “innovative” and with incentives for the youth.
