In line with its continuing policy of upgrading the well-being and welfare of its employees, Wema Bank Plc, Nigeria’s leading innovative financial institution, has announced the re-opening of Purple Crèche for its employees.

Purple Crèche is an initiative that provides top-tier daycare for the newborn and very young children of Wema Bank staff – the Wema Bank Knights – enabling them attend to their daily schedules. It is a development that further affirms the narrative that Wema Bank is the employer of choice and a great place to work.

Purple Crèche is a daycare and educational facility located within the Wema Bank Head Office and is available to children of Wema Bank staff, aged 3 – 30 months. The crèche had been temporarily closed during Covid. The revamped Purple Creche has now been upgraded with top-notch quality facilities, equipment and human resources, all to provide the staff of Wema Bank with superior standards of care and education for their children.

The now re-launched Purple Crèche is fully equipped with premium state-of-the-art facilities and a private room for nursing mothers to breastfeed their infants. The staff also comprises a roster of qualified nurses on-site and is managed by trained and experienced, carers who place a premium on the documentation of the children’s activities, in order to keep parents updated on their children’s welfare and progress. The children themselves are taught and educated to develop their cognitive, social, and mental skills, giving them a head-start in life.

The facility is open every weekday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in alignment with general staff work schedules, thus allowing staff to provide their children with exceptional care in professional hands, without worrying about their safety or well-being.

“Our commitment to improving the lives of our staff and helping them become the best versions of themselves, often have us developing new and improved employee-focused initiatives that positively impact their lives.” explains Ololade Ogungbenro, Wema Bank’s Divisional Head, Brand, People and Culture, “Purple Crèche is one of such initiatives. We observed that members of staff who had just returned from maternity leave had some difficulty adjusting to leaving their newborns at home. We started Purple Creche to bring the children closer to their parents without interrupting productivity on either side; and it was amazing to see parents handle their duties without worrying about their children’s, knowing they’re in the safe hands. 

Regarding the renovation of the crèche, Ogungbenro insists it is in line with Wema’s commitment to excellence. “We maintain a constant review of Purple Creche’s facilities and decided to remodel and upgrade its facilities, improve the quality of Purple Creche staff and create a more homely, advanced and top-class care and learning environment for the children of our staff.” Ogungbenro adds that Purple Crèche is open to all staff of Wema Bank.

With its re-opening, Purple Crèche is an excellent facility with top-grade infrastructure and a well-trained staff providing children of Wema Bank employees with first-class care and education in a safe, secure and hygienic environment that’s within the immediate reach of their parents, and under the supervision of qualified professionals.

On her expectations for Purple Crèche, Ogungbenro says “It is about creating a home like environment for our staff most important treasures. When our staff are at peace that their treasures are safe, they can be at their best at work.

 “Purple Crèche promises to be a safe haven for both children and parents to maximize their potential within a secure, nurturing environment. It is our faith that this will ultimately help to produce both intellectually sound and emotionally intelligent children, and highly productive, stress-free parents.”

The custodian of Africa’s first fully digital bank – ALAT, and one of Nigeria’s leading commercial banks, Wema Bank, celebrates the season of love with its customers in an array of ways including providing Special Gift Cards for celebrants to gift their loved ones.

The bank started the season of love by reminding its customers about the importance of self-love and the need to love their partners the way they want to be loved. With a week-long campaign on its social media platforms, Wema Bank called out its growing following to dig deep and identify the things that make them tickle which will help them to define how they want to be loved.

Aside the bank’s initiative to celebrate its customers across channels, the bank decided to make gift cards available because, according to Wema Bank’s communications lead, Olufunmilayo Falola, many people worry about the perfect gift to get their loved ones and often end up buying what they like as opposed what their loved ones like or want.

The Wema Bank Special Gift Card is to alleviate both stress and uncertainty that may come with picking a gift, and ensure that people get their desired gifts from their loved ones on Valentine’s Day and every other day. With a Wema Bank Gift Card, customers can be sure to offer their loved ones gifts that excite them any day, anytime.

Wema Bank is also encouraging its customers to spend more time with their loved ones or significant other and have fun with one another, out of the home. The bank is sponsoring some of its customers on dates to celebrate their love this season. With transactions worth fifty thousand naira or more in the month of February, active customers will be selected through a raffle draw on February 24, 2020.

Known for its trailblazing solutions in fintech and providing financial services that support the lifestyle of its customers, ALAT, Africa’s first fully digital bank is supporting salary earners with instant loans.

ALAT salary-based loan is a low-interest loan available to the bank’s existing as well as new salary earning customers who may or may not have their salary account domiciled with Wema Bank.

Riding on its reputation of offering seamless financial services, ALAT customers will be able to access the salary-based loan without any form of paperwork, from the comfort of their ALAT app or the ALAT web page without any collateral.

Salary earners will be able to receive a minimum of #50,000 and up to #4,000,000 within hours and will have between 3 to 24 months to pay back with only 2% interest rate per month on a reducing balance basis.

According to the bank’s Brand and Marketing Communications Manager, Mrs Funmilayo Falola, the salary-based loan is an initiative of the bank to avail salary earners emergency funds to meet needs that otherwise cannot wait for the next payday or that require additional funding.

Mrs Falola stated that the profiled salary-earners that can profit from the loan range from Oil and Gas and Financial industry workers, Fintechs, Insurance and FMCG staff. She further confirmed that the process of getting the salary-based loan is entirely online – on the ALAT app or web page – and begins with downloading the app from android or IOS apps store for new customers and a simple login with a click on the ‘Loan’ icon for ALAT registered customers on the ALAT app or web page.

To ensure that customers have a hitch-free registration process, ALAT app has been updated to include a video run-through of the process of registration at the sign-up page. Customers can also get a simple explainer of each step of the registration process by clicking on the ‘i’ icon on each page on the app.

Also, for customers to have financial confidence and freedom, ALAT has introduced a zero balance. This means that customers can withdraw their money to the last kobo and there will be no charges should any customer maintain a zero balance on their account.

Wema Bank, Nigeria’s leading innovative bank, is deepening pan-African trade services for its customers through its bilateral partnership agreement with Bank of Africa Group (BOA).

The partnership agreement, which was announced on October 14, 2019, by Mr Ademola Adebise, MD/CEO of Wema Bank Plc and Mr Amine Bouabid, CEO of BOA, is aimed at enhancing the relationship between both banks and delivering sustainable and value-adding support for business growth and profitability across the continent.

Through the partnership, both banks will gain an opportunity to promote bilateral trade services which will include Import and Export services, Bonds and Guarantees, and Structured Finance collaborations.

In keeping with the tenets of the partnership agreement, activities around corresponding banking, trade facilitation and remittances will kickstart between Wema Bank and BOA Ghana.

This opportunity will also envisage the full implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), with a focus on the manufacturing, power and agriculture sectors, as well as Nigerian business community in Ghana, Wema Bank customers in Nigeria can now trade and make remittances seamlessly with BOA customers in Ghana.

According to Mr Adeola Ajai, Head Global Trade and Correspondent Banking, Wema Plc, “the partnership with BOA will help facilitate business activities across the African continent, offer better and more competitive pricing to support customers and execute transactions faster” to customers looking to take their businesses beyond borders.”

Mr Ajai also added that the subsequent phase of the partnership will be to sign a sub-agreement with 16 other BOA affiliated locations across Anglophone and Francophone African countries, 6 of which are in West Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Togo and Senegal), 7 in East Africa and the Indian Ocean region (Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) as well as in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Significantly, this opportunity opens a window for African businesses to trade with their Chinese partners through the BOA/BMCE branch office in Shanghai, mainland China. BMCE, Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur of Morocco is the leading shareholder in BOA.

As stipulated in the partnership agreement, Mr Ajai adds that Wema Bank will not only back its clients with businesses that have cross border transactions in Africa, the Bank will play an advisory role for import and export trade services.

Wema Bank remains committed to the provision of innovative value propositions that offer better pricing, simplicity and reduced turnaround time to help its customers and potential customers take their businesses beyond borders.

Wema Bank’s ALAT, Africa’s first fully digital bank went all out to excite travelers flying out of Lagos with the ALAT airport mural. The ALAT mural sprang out of an understanding of how traveling evokes different emotions in different people – excitement, paranoia, fear, anxiety, to list a few, and the need for them to hold on to the memories that matter to them.

The ALAT brand has positioned itself and been known to be the brand that no only offers Nigerians convenient banking services but that also supports their lifestyle. In the word’s the bank’s Chief Communications Officer, Funmilayo Falola, for ALAT and Wema Bank, marketing is more than just the direct sale of a product or service, it is about creating an experience for the customer. She stated that infusing conversations and storytelling into advertising and marketing communications is one of the strategies the bank is applying to engage existing customers and gain new ones.

The ALAT airport mural is one of the many ways the bank expresses its deep-seated interest in the stories and overall lifestyle of its expanding customer base. The mural is dedicated to the many and widely varying Lagos experiences across both the Mainland and the Island.

The new boarding gate look at MM2 gives boarders a walk-through of iconic places in Lagos for travelers, who are often filled with a mirage of emotions at the point of leaving a place for another. At the ALAT mural, they can identify places they are familiar with in Lagos, maybe have a flash of unforgettable memories they’ve had in those places or remember what those places mean to them and have a pretty background to take one or two selfies before they board to fly out of Lagos.

The ALAT airport mural is also very strategic for people who are new to Lagos. Its showcases the many places in Lagos in a perfect blend of images and text. This is also a way for Wema Bank to help departing visitors visualize many places that they may not have had the opportunity to visit during their stay.

The colourful tones, the iconic places captured and the symbols of the new Lagos culture on the mural come together to give both traveling Lagosians and departing visitors a feel of Lagos as they make their way out of the city. This ties into the values of the ALAT brand of providing convenient banking services that are in sync with the lifestyle of their customers.

So the next time, you find yourself at MM2, look out for your favourite spot in Lagos and remember to take a selfie and share on your social media platforms.

With so many improvements and changes that have happened to Nigerian banking, is anyone still restricted to just savings and withdrawals? For those with firsthand knowledge about the industry, there are so many benefits that an account holder can begin to ask for more, and nothing satisfies a customer more than when a bank is specifically focused on being the solution, not the norm.

With a focus on delivering consistent and seamless services while rewarding customers, Wema Bank has built a respected, welcoming and modern brand over the years, with millions of customers who can access and experience different incentives due to services, contributions and savings.

By launching its online platform, ALAT, few years ago, the bank has woven customers’ constantly-changing tastes and technology into a single app that has transformed lifestyles and changed banking in the country.

With the new Outlet by ALAT, the app does not only serve as a payment service platform for customers and merchants, but also connects customers with digital services such as payments, event and movie ticket purchases, flight bookings, bet wallet funding, airtime vending, utility bills and more.
ALAT has become a one-stop advanced channel for recorded vendors to get installments for merchandise and ventures from both Wema Bank and non-Wema Bank account holders. So it’s not just about having a bank account, it’s about having one that consistently provides solutions.

While saving money has never been widely considered an investment, there can be benefits when it is properly managed and comes with higher interest – which makes the Wema Bank Smart Save Account important for many Nigerians. And while everyone might understand the need to save, the ease of accessing saved money makes it hard for people to have a healthy savings culture. With Smart Save, however, account holders can save money towards a goal – holiday expenses, tuition, birthday, etc., and also earn higher interest return on savings.

It can also be exciting to have total access to experience convenience banking. For example, transactions have become as simple as Cash-on-the-Go, where account holders can even make cardless withdrawals via ATMs. Yes, it is possible to forget one’s account number sometimes, or we forget to carry our debit cards with us. By dialing *945# on a mobile phone, banking becomes really easy.

The new age of banking in Nigeria continues, but with its services and offers, Wema Bank has led the industry in truly redefining the benefits of banking among customers. And this continues to improve, regardless of changes in the season or the improvement in customers’ interest.

Click here to join a new crop of smart savers.