In a constant move to deliver on the nationally important agenda of financial inclusion, First National Bank Lesotho (FNB) has taken some ground breaking steps to bring banking services closer not only for FNB customers but to the unbanked population at large.

On Wednesday, the company launched a mobile banking initiative known as Lai Lai. The cash plus mobile banking solution, according to the bank, includes some other new developments to make banking better and more convenient for the customers “towards solving the local problems in a unique way”. “We have brought in an innovative leading edge distribution strategy called Lai Lai which will allow customers to perform cardless withdrawals through FNB cellphone banking app and withdraw the cash at an agent,” said the company Head of Retail Teboho Mhlanga on Wednesday.

Mhlanga went further to emphasize that the solution is the first kind in Lesotho’s banking sector and designed to foster financial
inclusion by bringing banking services and solutions to both business and individual customers throughout the country. “This is a solution that will be delivered through FNB business banking customers who are typically cash heavy. It is aimed at solving for their cash handling challenges by allowing individual customers to perform withdrawals from the cash at the business’s tills and deposits should they require to do so,” Mhlanga added.

The initiative affords the FNB banked business customers to reduce security risks associated with handling of cash. It also offers reduced
cash deposit fees as the money withdrawn by customers at the till is credited to the business account and treated as a free deposit.