UBA introduces Nigeria’s first Braille bank account for the blind

United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of Nigeria’s biggest financial institutions, has taken a unique step towards financial inclusion for Nigerians. At an event held in Lagos, the bank presented the UBA Braille Account Opening Form designed for the visually impaired demographic. 

This project was masterminded in collaboration with a non-profit organization called Anglo-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind. This not only targets a specific demographic but is the first of its kind in the financial services industry. The visually impaired have always had to rely on family and friends to aid in opening bank accounts, but that will change soon. They’ll be able to start and finish the account opening process independently.

Affirming this claim, popular music producer, Cobhams Asuquo said that the new account opening form unlocks a better experience for people like him.

“With this initiative, UBA has promoted our ideal of inclusivity and has helped to put back freedom in our hands while opening us up to the variety of opportunities and options available to us,”

Cobhams Asuquo

According to UBA’s Executive Director of Finance and Risk Management Ugo Nwaghodoh, the initiative represents the bank’s efforts to ensure the visually impaired and other physically challenged persons are prioritized just like everyone else.

“The ultimate benefit is to ensure that everybody has the right to select and choose the kind of account they want to operate, and this account opening form will go a long way to ensure this,” he explains. 

Not only will this initiative reach customers across its branches in Nigeria, but UBA has also confirmed that the visually impaired in the 19 other nations where it operates will equally gain access to this feature. Praising this development, Dare Dairo, the General Manager of the Lagos State Office of Disability Affairs (LASODA), said that it was good to see private institutions support the government in championing such endeavors. 

Read also: UBA and Access Bank top the chart as Nigerian banks generate N94.483 billion e-business revenue 

A history of financial exclusion for the physically challenged 

Admittedly, both the government, startups, and larger companies are encouraging financial inclusion. But their efforts haven’t always included those with impairments. Last year, a feature was published detailing how commercial banks in Nigeria and Ghana prevent the physically challenged from accessing basic financial services through structural and policy deficits. 

Today, not every bank branch in Nigeria is wheelchair-accessible from the outside. Aside from the absence of ramps, most banks use mantrap door designs that ideally are intended for security purposes. However, they aren’t suitable for people unable to walk. This and a few more instances represent a persistent problem.

An study commissioned by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2018 found that the constant exclusion of disabled people from basic financial services has “enormous economic implications.” It went on to state that the World Bank claimed that financial exclusion of people living with disabilities takes away between $1.71 trillion and $2.23 trillion from the global GDP yearly. 

The report also notes that people living with disabilities are often discriminated against when it comes to credit facilities. “Banks deny disabled people access to loans premised on the prejudice that PLWDs are fraught with high loan default tendencies,” it states. Essentially, people with disabilities aren’t considered for loans mainly because banks worry about their ability to repay.

UBA’s Braille account opening form is a step in the right direction, but more is expected from other banks, and other stakeholders in the financial industry. Leveling the field for people with disabilities using innovative solutions will benefit customers, banks, and the economy.