Government on March 30 announced a partial lockdown of the Greater Accra and Kumasi metropolitan areas, which have reported the most cases of COVID-19 infections in the country.

With the lockdown, the movement of people is restricted and nonessential businesses are all expected to shut down operations for a minimum period of 14 days, subject to government review.

With the prevailing limited movements, economic activities have been generally slow and most essential service providers have accordingly scaled down operations to meet the reduced demand of their customers.

Most providers have actively been educating their patrons on the need to avoid or minimise movements and rather resort to virtual or online transactions that come in various forms to meet the varied needs of customers.

Such is the position of Ecobank Ghana. The bank has made available 15 physical branches within the lockdown zones and also deployed many alternate channels for use by their customers and, even, members of the general public who may not have accounts with Ecobank.

All branches outside of the lockdown areas are working fully, Monday to Friday.

With these deployments, Ecobank Ghana has been vigorously urging customers to embrace the use of technology in order to lessen the burden of moving around and also touching physical cash, with negative ramifications in this COVID-19 era.

Currently, the available platforms include; 2,200 Ecobank Xpress Points (serving as agents around the country for payments and withdrawals), 15,000 accredited Merchants at EcobankPay points, who provide Mvisa and MasterPass QR code Scan and Pay solutions for cashless payments by customers, over 200 ATMs, including the bank’s Intelligent ATMs that accept deposits.

Supporting these is the much-talked-about Ecobank Mobile, which has today become the true alternate to visiting a banking hall.

Unlike other banking apps on the market, users of Ecobank Mobile can virtually perform all banking transactions all year round without the need for cash or the need to visit a bank branch.

This is what makes the App unique and clearly differentiates Ecobank from others.

The Ecobank Mobile app is available on Google Play Store or the App Store for easy download by all.

For high-value transactions, the bank also encourages its customers to use internet banking service, which is available whenever wherever. Ecobank OMNI and Ecobank Omni lite are available for use by business/corporate customers. Ecobank has a dedicated contact centre that operates 24/7 on toll-free, 3225, providing remote technical support to customers to facilitate “wahala-free” online transactions.

To be sure, the bank’s social media handles are always actively working around the clock to provide answers to all questions customers may have.

The following are the only branches that will operate from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm Mondays-Fridays in the lockdown regions;

1. Ecobank Head Office, Accra
2. Ecobank Tema Main
3. Ecobank Hospital Road, Tema
4. Ecobank Spintex, Accra
5. Ecobank A&C, Accra
6. Ecobank Abeka Lapaz, Accra
7. Ecobank Silver Star Tower, Accra
8. Ecobank Osu, Accra
9. Ecobank Madina – Firestone, Accra
10. Ecobank Dansoman, Accra
11. Ecobank Weija, Accra
12. Ecobank Kasoa, Accra
13. Harper Road, Kumasi
14. Bantama, Kumasi
15. Kumasi Stadium

Customers are to note that the bank has temporarily stopped Saturday banking in all branches nationwide.