Students and staff of the University of Abuja now have access to round-the-clock self-service banking on campus following the establishment of a 24-hour digital banking centre by FirstBank, ending what the university management described as the absence of a proper commercial banking facility within its premises.
The development is expected to reduce the need for members of the university community to travel outside the campus to access routine banking services, including cash withdrawals, deposits, account maintenance, and ATM card replacement.
The bank said the facility, known as the Digital Xperience Centre, would enable customers to perform virtually all routine banking transactions independently, including outside normal banking hours and during weekends.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of FirstBank, Olusegun Alebiosu, disclosed this during the commissioning of the centre at the University of Abuja on Tuesday.
He said the initiative was designed to move more customers towards digital banking while reducing their dependence on physical branches for routine transactions.
“Our primary objective is to move customers onto our digital platform and enable them to carry out transactions digitally, 24 hours a day.
“This is a university community, and we believe that its members are educated and capable of operating these machines. Therefore, they do not necessarily need to visit a conventional banking hall for routine transactions.
“What we have here represents virtually everything customers would ordinarily go to a banking hall to do,” Alebiosu said.
He said the centre would operate 24 hours a day throughout the year, allowing students to access banking services after lectures, during late-night study sessions and on public holidays.
“Whether you are leaving the library at midnight or arriving at 5am, you can access cash through the ATM, replace a lost ATM card, check your account balance, obtain your bank statement, update your email address, change your phone number or make transfers.
“Virtually everything is available here, allowing customers to transact seamlessly 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are no restrictions relating to Saturdays, Sundays or conventional branch closing hours,” he said.
The development comes amid the banking industry’s growing shift towards digital transactions, as financial institutions increasingly deploy technology to reduce pressure on physical branches and improve customer access to services.
However, the introduction of largely automated banking services has also raised concerns about cybersecurity and the protection of customers’ personal information.
Addressing these concerns, Alebiosu said the centre had multiple authentication systems, including facial recognition, fingerprint verification and one-time passwords, to prevent unauthorised access to customers’ accounts.
He explained that customers seeking to change sensitive account information would have to pass several verification stages before the system approved their requests.
“Whenever a customer wants to change a password, phone number or email address, fingerprint authentication is required. The system verifies the customer’s fingerprint, conducts facial recognition and sends a one-time password to the registered phone number before any changes can be made.
“This means that the system verifies the customer’s identity through multiple layers of authentication. The person must have access to the registered phone, provide the correct fingerprint and pass facial recognition,” he said.
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof. Hakeem Fawehinmi, said the centre would address a longstanding gap in banking services on the campus.
He said the university previously lacked a proper commercial banking facility within its premises, forcing students and staff to seek some banking services outside the campus.