{"id":866,"date":"2014-01-17T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/blogs\/english\/?p=866"},"modified":"2014-01-17T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-17T15:00:20","slug":"a-bank-on-4-wheels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/a-bank-on-4-wheels\/","title":{"rendered":"A bank on 4 wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks, you might have seen a strange-looking green and white van driving around the town. That van is actually a mobile bank. A Mobile Branch to be precise and Iwacu approached CRDB bank\u2019s Relationship Manager to learn more about their one-of-a-kind innovation in Burundi.<\/strong>–By Joanna Nganda<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The CRDB\u2019s Mobile Branch.\u00a9Iwacu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/em>CRDB, a Tanzanian bank in Burundi, is very keen on innovating and presenting new products to its clients. The Mobile Branch is only one of their innovations but also the one that has caught our attention the most. Arnaud Rugema, the Relationship Manager of CRDB Bank, explains: \u201cAt CRDB Bank, electronic innovation is one of our mottos. With the Mobile Branch, we are closer than ever to our clientele. We make rotations between the busy points of the city such as the Sioni\u2019s market, \u201cQuartier Asiatique\u201d, and Buyenzi.\u201dBesides the armored vehicle itself, the main innovation resides in the services the mobile bank offers. \u201cWith the Mobile Branch, our clients can perform any banking transaction; there\u2019s no difference between the Mobile Branch and the headquarters of the CRDB bank. Besides the ATM (Automated Teller Machine, Ed.) services, you can transfer, deposit or withdraw money, check your account, and even open or close your account,.\u201d Arnaud Rugema says. Bigere, a merchant at \u2018Quartier Asiatique\u2019, remembers when he first saw the Mobile Branch: \u201cAt first, I thought it was a weird-looking car, and when the driver told me that it was a bank\u2026I was surprised! He also told me that I could open a bank account right there. If I hadn\u2019t already had one, I would have tried to see how it works. Burundi is getting really developed!\u201d<\/p>\n

Unthinkable but true<\/strong><\/p>\n

But according to Arnaud Rugema, the population was not always as enthusiastic as Bigere. Indeed, to some, deposing their hard-earned money in a vehicle is unthinkable. \u201cAt first, people were reluctant to deposit money because they thought the van would just drive away and steal their money. But their money is safe. In fact, if they go to our headquarters or Simbanking facility, another new CRDB Bank product, they will see that their accounts have been updated. This is possible because of the real-time connectivity to the bank core system. On that subject, we hope that communication in Burundi get better so we can offer even better services to our customers, communication is the only minor issue,\u201d says Arnaud Rugema. The main project of CRDB bank is to maximize their visibility with the Mobile Branch and reach many people, which it has succeeded to do. \u201cWe have over 40 daily clients with the Mobile Branch!\u201d says Yves Niyongabo, a Mobile Branch Operator. In fact, the countryside will soon be conquered by the Mobile Branch, especially on busy market days. The bank on 4 wheels will also be of great use to reach unbanked population which constitutes the major part of Burundi population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These past few weeks, you might have seen a strange-looking green and white van driving around the town. That van is actually a mobile bank. A Mobile Branch to be precise and Iwacu approached CRDB bank\u2019s Relationship Manager to learn more about their one-of-a-kind innovation in Burundi.–By Joanna Nganda CRDB, a Tanzanian bank in Burundi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[735,170],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}