Standard Chartered To Shut Half Of Nigerian Branches In Major Digital Push

In a move towards full digitization of its operations, Standard Chartered Bank Plc has announced it will be closing about half of its branches in Nigeria.

This is coming on the heels of pressure within the finance industry from mobile money providers.

Details reveal that the bank has already begun shutting some of its branches since December and will continue the move into the year and will eventually have only 13 branches in the country.

Instead, Standard Chartered will be pivoting into digital and mobile banking, recruiting agents who will do more of reaching out to customers and handle cash deposits and withdrawals across the nation.

A spokeswoman who spoke to Bloomberg said the bank would address the plans at an ”appropriate time”.

Since its launch in Nigeria in 1999, the bank has focused on corporate banking  but it appears its now looking to expand its retail banking footprint across the country. This it outlined in its 2019 target road map to grow its customer base from 100,000 in about two years leveraging digital technology to onboard clients faster.

The migration to digital is fast sweeping across the financial sector as more banks look to leverage technology to move faster rather than focus on brick and mortar branch expansion.

One of the first Nigerian banks to pioneer chatbot to power banking relationship UBA’s recently celebrated the fourth year of its banking chatbot service Leo.

As it stands, more banks will be adopting such measures into the year.