Accra, March 15, GNA - Indigenous Ghanaian Bank- UT Bank has found innovative ways of using the e-zwich card and platform by disbursing loans through the card to its customers in the remotest part of the country. More than 920,000 Ghana cedis was disbursed to customers of the bank three weeks ago in a loan scheme to micro and small scale businesses.

Some of the loan recipients are as far as the Upper East Region where UT bank has no branch.

According to the UT e-zwich Project Officer Mr Mubarak Niriganlibir Bowan, the bank, has been using the e-zwich electronic platform and the biometric card for a plethora of services available to the benefit of the financial entity and its customers= ..

He said the bank has a department dedicated to e-zwich and is constantly researching on how to effectively deploy the electronic service in innovative ways.

Regarding the loan disbursement, Mr Bowan said the bank decided to enrol the beneficiaries onto the e-zwich and after their loan applications were approved, the monies were disbursed and received by the customers in real time. According to him it is cheaper and faster, adding that the customers who are enthused about the speed with which they got the money despite thei= r location, have been speaking to others who have called the bank to enquire about the service.

Mr Bowan said what was impressive about the use of the e-zwich to disburse loans was the fact that the beneficiaries have kept part of their money on the card and access it as and when they want to apply it to their businesses.

As at last week, about 600 thousand Ghana cedis representing some 65 per cent of the monies sent to the loan recipients are still on the e-zwich cards of the beneficiaries. He explained that the loans will also be repaid through the e-zwich cards.

UT Bank has adopted the e-zwich as its own product and it is one of th= e few banks that constantly advertise the electronic payment system. It pays the highest interest rate of 15 per cent on the savings wallet of the card, and provides e-zwich services at all of its branches.

The bank also allows customers with accounts elsewhere to move money onto their e-zwich card by issuing a cheque to UT bank. The e-zwich Project Officer explained that as part of the bank's enrolment policy, a team from the bank goes round the branch outlets and mounts a stand to enrol customers that visit the branches.

He said there is also a mobile e-zwich team that regularly visits organizations, schools and market places to enrol people onto the card. These he said were being done because of the role that e-zwich can pla= y in developing the economy.

"It is a platform that can transform transactions in the country,= " Mr Bowan added, saying 93we want to transform small and micro banking through e-zwich". The bank, which is a subsidiary of the UT Group, says several other e-zwich based products are in the pipeline and will soon be introduced to enrich the banking experience that it provides its customers.