Centenary Bank Uganda has said the Shs600 charge for checking the account balance is to meet the costs of mobile banking under their CenteMobile App, which is still being tested.
According to Centenary Bank, the charge will be removed when more of their customers embrace the mobile banking platform.
“As part of improving service delivery, we rolled out our mobile banking for customer convenience whose uptake has tremendously increased. Being a microfinance bank, we must continuously offer solutions that add value to our primary segment while making the bank sustainable,” the bank said in a statement issued on Tuesday, August 10, 2021.
“Most of our clients are still embracing the service and we are happy with uptake. As we transition, we continuously test the service and business model and that is how a charge of Ugx 600 per transaction was considered,” the bank.
Centenary Bank explained that this makes them able to cover the cost of running the service, pay their ecosystem partners costs as well as continue offering a great service to our middle and high-end clients who have already embraced the solution.
“As our mass customers fully enrol, the service shall be fully free over time as the transaction values offset the running costs. We hope this clarifies the issue, and thank you for the valuable feedback,” the bank said.
Centenary Bank has over the last week come under criticism from a section of the public that believes that the charge is unfair.
According to the bank, new technologies come with a lot of responsibility for customer security of funds and uptime that call for different pricing depending on customer profiles and adoption timelines of new technologies.
“We reiterate our commitment to offer affordable services and aim to continuously improve our service for convenience and safety. Thank you for choosing Centenary Bank,” the bank added.