The Covid-19 lockdown has resulted in a massive increase in voice calls by users of telecommunications services in South Africa. This is according to FNB Connect, which revealed that in the last 12 months, consumer spend on voice calls increased by 80 percent while spending on data was up 55 percent.
FNB Retail chief executive Raj Makanjee said the company was not surprised by this trend as telecommunications has always been one of the highest household spend categories for the bank’s customers.
“As a result, we are consistently looking for ways to ’democratise’ access to these services by leveraging our ecosystem and digital platform. Every month, customers who use our qualifying bank accounts are rewarded with free voice minutes and data. And our telco services are integrated into our eBucks Rewards to give customers even more value in rewards,” Makanjee said.
FNB Connect chief executive Brad Roper said: “As FNB Connect, we understand the pressures customers are facing financially and are committed to providing better value at every opportunity. Hence, we recently launched our popular smart devices offering on the FNB App with contracts of up to 24 months.”
Roper said FNB Connect would roll out services for SMEs to alleviate the cost of connectivity and help boost this vital part of our economy. This is part of our commitment to offering more value to the bank’s retail and commercial customers, he says.
“We pride ourselves on putting customers at the centre of our integrated financial solutions, and the innovations we are implementing demonstrate our commitment to value-based solutions, especially during these tough economic times. Overall, our efforts will go a long way to building main-bank relationships with customers in our Retail and Commercial ecosystem,” said Roper.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE