Put down your smartphone, we’re talking about a different kind of mobile banking here.
You’ve heard of food trucks, right? And maybe you’ve even seen mobile post offices. Buying stamps and mailing packages out the side of a truck doesn’t seem so strange. So how about a bank in truck?
A member of Bank Innovation‘s LinkedIn group alerted us to bank-in-a-trucks in — wait for it — Nigeria. And, no, they are not just for redeeming the US$10,000,000 promised to you this morning via email.
Diamond Bank, based in Lagos, plans to roll out a vehicle “fortified with the latest technology.” At the truck, customers can open new accounts, pay bills, transfer money, and use the ATM to make deposits and withdrawals. An officer of the bank called the truck as “a full-fledged bank in motion.”
Diamond Bank’s Head of proposition and liabilities, Olumide Akindele, said Diamond Bank “planned to acquire about 250 additional units of the mobile banking trucks for nationwide rollout as part of the strategy to serve the unbanked population.”
So, you may not be able to see these “banks in motion” in your neighborhood anytime soon, but you can still bank some money there. Just send them your bank’s routing number, your account number, and throw in your social security for good measure.