FDH\u2019s ad about its USSD mobile app aroused my interest. I decided to open an account and test the pudding.<\/p>\n
A gorgeous lady took me through the process at the open-new account desk. I filled forms where among other things the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) wanted to know what was not its business; whether I owned a house or a car.<\/p>\n
I was asked to provide a water bill. When I wanted to know whether the bank was running a promotion where it settled customers\u2019 bills or not, the lady realised that before her was probably a customer from hell.<\/p>\n
She politely educated me that the central bank uses this information to ensure that nobody with money laundering record should ever open an account. I wondered whether the big bank was so gullible to believe that those in money laundering do not pay water bills; who told them?<\/p>\n
All the tedious paper work done, the lady told me to go and return the following morning to collect my account number.<\/p>\n
When I did, I was told to come yet the following day. Just there, my patience was tested. Are you a child of God? I yelled. \u201c Do you know that the excellent God you and I worship created Everest Mountain, Sapitwa, the beautiful stack-up stones in mountains of Harare, the gold in South Africa, Indian Ocean, The crocodile, the chirping birds, Mugabe, Donald Trump, Idi Amin, Savimbi and everything else in just six days?<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, I was thrilled that I finally had an account with FDH, my passport to FDH mobile. The application form this time around was short and straightforward; the bank did not want to know how many children I had. In just under 24 hours, I received an SMS with a temporary passcode. I was pleasantly surprised it was so quick.<\/p>\n
First, a two item menu appeared: Mobile banking and Mobile wallet. I dived straight into the first item. A similar submenu to National Bank of Malawi\u2019s Mo626 ice emerged. There were additions though: Other banking services, Admin and Cardless Withdraw.<\/p>\n
Other banking services included apply for a loan, issue standing order, exchange rates, apply for a cheque and stop a cheque submenus.<\/p>\n
The Admin is what it is; you use it to change a passcode or to delete a beneficiary on mobile wallets.<\/p>\n
What caught my eye was the Cardless ATM withdrawals item. I immediately wanted to try it out. I asked for a K 2,000 wallet and behold I was issued with a cardless pin which was accepted at the FDH ATM. This means that I can get this kind of pin, which expires after 240 minutes, text it to a wife in Mzuzu and she would get the money at the nearest FDH ATM. Fairylike.<\/p>\n
I can also register her phone on the system and FDH Mobile can send the wallet straight to her phone and no bank account is required for the wife.<\/p>\n
How robust is it? I put to some stress test. I sent it on an errand to buy ESCOM units after mid-night. I did so faithfully without even blinking. Other mobile systems shy away late at night, except of course, NBM Mo626 iCe.<\/p>\n
The hallmark of good product, according to Horst Shulze, hides in three things: must be without defects, timeliness and non-nonsense service delivery. What would you say about FDH Mobile? To Dr. Thom Mpinganjira, Happy Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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