First Bank Nigeria Plc (FBN), UBA Plc and Diamond Bank have handed over their offsite ATMs to ATM Consortium (ATMC).
This is in conformity with the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which banned banks from deploying ATMs offsite and ordered that banks either handover their offsite ATMs to consortia or relocate them to their premises on or before March 31, 2001.
ATMC is the first Independent ATM Deployer (IAD) and operator of the QuickCash ATM network owned by a consortium of banks. With this development, QuickCash ATM network installed capacity has increased from 350 ATMs to 1,466.
Over a thousand ATMs have been handed over to ATMC; UBA Group handed over 700 ATMs, First Bank relinquished 410 with the balance contributed by Diamond Bank.
Dr. Abdu Abubakar, First Bank, executive director, Banking Operations and Services who recently took over as vice Chairman of the ATMC board of directors, said the handover of the ATMs to the consortium is to further demonstrate the bank’s support for ATMC. “We see this CBN policy as a revalidation of the IAD business model, which we adopted for ATMC at inception, and therefore stand fully committed to the success of the new policy,” Abubakar said.
Mr. Oladele Akinyemi, Diamond Bank, executive director, Customer Service and Technology who also serves as chairman of ATMC’s board of director said the bank sees the CBN policy as an opportunity to actualize the vision of building the largest ATM network in the region. According to him the bank looks forward to a timely completion of ATMC’s planning processes and an early re-launch of its QuickCash services for the benefit of customers, bank account holders and the Nigerian consumer.
Commenting on the handover, Mr. Olumide Bajomo, managing director and Chief Executive Officer, ATMC said UBA, FirstBank and Diamond Bank have all blazed the trail in demonstrating compliance with the apex bank’s regulation. He expressed delight at the handover by the banks who happen to be ATMC’s major shareholders and views the gesture as a demonstration of their commitment and endorsement of ATMC’s repositioning plan.
“Over the next few weeks, we expect our other shareholder banks namely Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, Afribank, Union Bank and Wema Bank to follow suit,” he said, adding that ATMC would soon commence the process of rebranding and deploying the QuickCash brand across the entire bank branded cash machines and ATMs that were handed.