The ALAT Application by Wema Bank, which defeated other FinTech apps nominated in the same category on the platform’s shortlist, was voted the Overall Best Mobile App at the Nigerian FinTech Awards 2022.
On Friday, November 4, 2022, the news was made at the award event in Lagos.
Wema Bank Plc, the oldest indigenous commercial bank in the nation, introduced ALAT By Wema in May 2017 with the goal of transforming and redefining experience banking in the Nigerian banking industry. Over 250,000 new clients joined ALAT by Wema in its first year, accounting for deposits totaling over NGN 1.6 billion ($4.48 million). In terms of deposits into savings accounts, the bank ended 2018 at N1 billion ($2.78m).
Olusegun Adeniyi, the chief digital officer of Wema Bank, expressed his happiness at receiving the award and said that ALAT By Wema had transformed the banking sector in Nigeria. He said that the honor was only the cherry on top of the cake.
“We are delighted at being named as the Overall Best Mobile App by the august platform, which is dedicated to honoring excellence in financial technologies and services companies and products. The award is complementary to the excitement that the multi-award-winning app has brought to its numerous individual and corporate subscribers.”
The Nigerian Fintech Awards, now in their tenth year, were established by Fintech Africa, a newspaper on financial technology, to recognize excellence in financial technology product designs and service execution. According to the organizers, ALAT By Wema’s victory for the Overall Best Mobile App honors the digital bank’s contributions to the Fintech industry.
He said ALAT By Wema, which adapts to customers’ lifestyles, enables subscribers to save more by giving them access to private group and personal savings, free debit cards, and rates of interest on savings of up to 4% annually.
Adeniyi claimed that since its May 2017 launch, ALAT By Wema has made opening an account less stressful by offering a simple sign-up process using a mobile phone, computer, or tablet. Unlike other banking apps, the ALAT By Wema app offers every banking service a user could desire.
“All banking apps only offer some banking services, typically airtime purchases, bill payments and transfers. For example, even with a banking app, customers usually still need to go to a physical bank to get a debit card and activate it, submit documents and often, get some kinds of customer support. This is not the case with ALAT, which was built from scratch to be entirely digital, making all banking services available to the customers anywhere they can access the internet.”
