Zigama Credit and Savings Society (Zigama CSS) has announced that it will start issuing own visa cards next year, allowing thousands of its members to enjoy seamless digital payment services.

This is one of the resolutions taken from the cooperative bank’s bi-annual general assembly which convened Friday at Rwanda Defence Force Headquarters in Kimihurura in Kigali.

James Ndahiro, the Chairman of Zigama Board of Directors, told the media after the closed-door meeting that the decision to start issuing visa cards is part of the efforts to continue digitising the lender.

"We are continuing to make investment in technology to enable our clients to get bank services without leaving the comfort of their homes or their offices,” he said.

Currently, members of the bank cannot transact with a number of  other bank ATMs.

But this will change starting February next year.

Major General Emmanuel Bayingana, the Chief Executive Officer of Zigama CSS, said that they are in the process to finalise a partnership agreement with Visa Inc., a global payments technology company.

"We are almost finalising an agreement with Visa to facilitate the process of issuing visa cards and we plan to start issuing them in February,” said Bayingana, who took office in October, replacing Albert Murasira, who is now the Minister for Defence.

On the other hand, the cooperative bank has also extended its loan pay-back period for mortgage facilities to 20 years from the current 15 years.

"We have resolved that members who will acquire mortgage loans will pay back in 20 years. We are going to study whether it will also be possible to reduce the interest rate on such loans,” Ndahiro noted.

Zigama, whose clients are predominantly members of the Rwanda Defence Force, Rwanda Correctional Services, and Rwanda National Police, has more than 90,000 members.

The board admitted Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) as a member of Zigama CSS. This means that employees of RIB will now enjoy Zigama services too.

Meanwhile, Zigama projects a net profit of Rwf10 billion this financial year.

On the other hand, the bank has a target of raising its asset value or capital to $1 billion in the next five years (2019-2023) from the current $280 million.

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