Customers have been advised to use established remittance channels in receiving money from abroad during the holy seasons of Easter and Ramadan.

The advice was shared in a media briefing session dubbed #AbrokyireSika by the Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), a leading Ghanaian indigenous Bank in Ghana.

#Abrokyiresika is the bank's umbrella programme to educate and inform banking customers in Ghana about the best way to receive money from abroad.

UMB has developed structures that allow customers in Ghana to receive their money from a variety of remittance companies either as a cash pick-up at the bank’s branches or directly into the customer's bank account.

Speaking to the press about the newly revamped UMB remittance services, Executive Director of Business at UMB, Nii Armankra Tetteh noted that “UMB is unique in the market when it comes to remittances because customers can receive the money in cash at any of our locations, or directly into their account.

"The good thing about receiving money at UMB is that when you receive money into your account, you have 24/7 access to it via our top-of-the-range mobile banking app, the UMB SpeedApp.

"This means that when Wofa Yaw or Kojo sends you money from ‘abrokyire’ for instance an emergency where you need to pay your hospital bills at 2 am at dawn, with UMB, that money can directly hit your account and with UMB SpeedApp, you can make that payment easily.”

Outlining the various remittance channels available at the Bank, Sam Donkor, General Manager, Virtual and Transactional Banking said, “We have seven remittance services at the bank including, reactivating our relationship with MoneyGram this month.

"We know Ghanaians abroad typically send a lot of money around this period for Ramadan and Easter. We are also aware that quite a number of Ghanaians get windfalls on their tax rebates in countries like the USA, and always like to send some of these monies back home to Ghana.

"We stand ready to support them with our world-class remittance services. These services include Ria, Vigo, Western Union, MoneyGram, Hello Paisa, Unity Link/World Remit, Transfast, IMT and Small World Financial Services”.