BUJUMBURA October 23rd (ABP) – The Burundi Housing Bank (BHB) officially launched on Friday October 20, 2023, in Bujumbura, its new BHB E-Cash products with Lumicash from the telecommunications company Viettel as well as the system international money transfer service by SWIFT as part of serving its customers, wherever they are.
On that occasion, the Deputy Managing Director of the BHB, Pascal Girukwishaka recalled that following the transformation of the Urban Housing Promotion Fund (FPHB) into the Burundi Housing Bank (BHB), the latter is assigned objectives such as becoming a local bank in order to better serve its customers, have better visibility thanks to the new strategic positioning which will allow it to be competitive at both national and international level, as well as financing the entire chain of the real estate sector.
The achievement of those objectives began with the decentralization of the activities of the BHB, while setting up agencies in the provinces of Ngozi, Gitega and Rumonge and in the communes of Muha, Ntahangwa and Mukaza of the town hall of Bujumbura.
In order to meet customer needs and improve the brand image of BHB, it decided, without delay, to negotiate partnership contracts with the money transfer payment system platforms “Lumicash and Ecocash” to allow customers to carry out banking operations via their mobile phones, noted Mr. Girukwishaka while noting that the payment system with Ecocash has already been operational since October 17, 2022. According to Mr. Girukwishaka, the partnership between Lumicash and BHB will allow customers of that community bank to carry out money transfer transactions from a customer’s bank account to their Lumicash account and vice versa. Those are withdrawal, payment, balance consultation and mini-history. To that end, he invited BHB customers to subscribe to BHB E-Cash with Lumicash to benefit from the facilities offered by that new product, because, he said, they will no longer need to make a turn to the bank, to endure long queues or the constraints of opening and closing hours.
Concerning the international payment system by SWIFT, the deputy managing director of the BHB announced that the public in general and the customers of that bank in particular, can now carry out fund transfer operations abroad or receive funds from abroad using SWIFT.
As for future prospects, Mr. Girukwishaka reported that in the coming days, the BHB also intends to use the bank note withdrawal system using the Automatic Teller Machines (ATM) in Bujumbura Mayorship.
For his part, the Director of Operations at BHB, Mr. Eric Nzambimana, indicated that that service will provide a complete banking experience to customers by providing benefits such as comfort where customers can carry out banking transactions at anytime and anywhere, from their mobile phone.
BHB and Lumicash use advanced security measures to protect customer data. Anyone with a BHB bank account and a mobile phone with a Lumitel sim card can access that service, said Mr. Nzambimana. He was delighted with the confidence placed in that young bank, which is only two years old, but which has more than 80,000 customer accounts, while it welcomes between 30 and 40 new customers per day.