In the ‘bold new digital world’, time is a very scarce resource with people very busy with their lives and things that improve or excite them or both.
As such, the lesser time one spends to accomplish a particular task, the more chances that s/he has to indulge in other things.
Before the introduction of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) cards, customers would queue in banking halls for hours before they would withdraw their hard earned monies.
This changed with the introduction of ATM cards that enable customers to conveniently access their funds from hundreds of ATM stations across the country.
It even became more interesting with the introduction of interconnected cards which would enable customers to visit any ATM station, include those of other banks and access their monies.
While there are Inter-switch cards, there are also VISA and Mastercards. The last two are internationally accepted, meaning that a customer with an active VISA or Mastercard can access and withdraw funds even when s/he is outside Uganda. In a nutshell, a trader is able to travel to China with just a card and withdraw money on arrival in Hangzhou.
Minus enabling local and international cash access, these cards also facilitate payments for goods and services. Be it on Amazon, Jumia, ITunes, Tidal, Apple Stores, Facebook and Twitter Ads; one can easily pay using their VISA or Mastercard. Indeed, the VISA / Mastercard is the ‘in thing’ and banks without them are losing clientele by the day.