First National Bank (FNB) Zambia has lowered fees on electronic transactions, effective from 1 September, to reduce the number of cash transactions, its carbon footprint and instil a paperless banking environment in the Southern African country.

The bank has also increased fees on manual transactions in a bid to encourage consumer participation in electronic banking.

Johan Maree, FNB Zambia chief executive officer, said, "the bank is reducing fees on electronic transactions because Zambia is moving towards a cashless society to enhance security".

The amount that fees will be reduced does depend on the type of account the customer has with the bank. For example, there are no fees for cellphone banking with FNB's Smart account, but mobile phone operators will charge for every transaction made.

Cellphone, ATM, App and online transfer transactions have now been reduced to ZMK3.0 from ZMK7.0 last year. Printed bank statements have already been increased from ZMK30 from ZMK25 per page last year. Prepaid purchases of electricity, airtime and other products, which cost ZMK1.05 on eWallet, will now be free.

According to a statement from DHL last month, a number of local banks in Africa still share information and conduct business with hard copy documentation, while the international trend shows that most banks are moving towards e-commerce.

The Bank of Zambia confirms that more Zambians are now involved in electronic transactions, including mobile phone banking. Statistics from FNB show that the country's mobile money accounts have reached close to 4 million compared to 2 million traditional bank accounts.