Nedbank has notched up a 17% increase in values of transactions carried out on its digital banking platforms.

Nedbank has notched up a 17% increase in values of transactions carried out on its digital banking platforms, its chief information officer said Tuesday, highlighting that COVID-19-related lockdowns across Africa have accelerated adoption of these platforms.

In December 2019, ITWeb reported that Nedbank had 1.7 million digitally active customers, representing a 30% increase on 2018 subscriber numbers.

Now the company has revealed that in the year to March 2020, its digital banking channels are boosting revenues, with the lock-down measures speeding up digital transaction values.

“Volumes and values processed through our digital channels continue to grow materially in response to our investments in services and solutions that can be accessed digitally. Digital sales performance has for example seen a (more than) 300% increase year-for-year to date March,” said Fred Swanepoel, CIO at Nedbank Group.

The South African bank also has operations in Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

It launched the Nedbank Money App for its African operations in 2019. Among other functions, the application enables depositors to activate their cards for international travel, cancel and/ or re-order bank cards.

In countries such as Zimbabwe, banks were not opening physical branches in the initial stages of lock-down measures, with finance institutions urging the adoption of online and other digital banking operations.

Nedbank Zimbabwe said in a notice to depositors this week that at present, its branches will only “offer services for foreign currency withdrawals, bulk cash deposits, ATM withdrawals subject to cash availability and ATM card applications” following the easing of lock-down restrictions by the government starting this week.

“Total value of payments and transfers on digital channels in March is up by 17% when compared to last year March. COVID-19 has necessitated that most of our services be delivered digitally and accordingly we have seen clients make full use of our digital banking services, particularly during the lock-down period,” added Swanepoel.

He believes the propensity for the adoption of digital banking channels across its regional markets had been in play for some time – and although COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption, the bank views this trend as sustainable beyond the Coronavirus pandemic.