I was at the United Bank for Africa (UBA) branch yesterday and I noticed that despite the lockdown, there were a quite lot of people on the queue waiting to perform one bank transaction or the other. The bank authorities also took it as a wake up call to provide a canopy for people to sit outside the bank premises.
I was not surprised as I expecting to see old men and women seated but to my greatest surprise, there were still vibrant youths in the ever lasting queue, that single handedly pushed me to write this article. Knowing this simple ussd codes can be of a great benefit to you, I perform transaction every single day of the week and even on Sundays with it, it is extremely straightforward.
You do not even need to have a smart phone, even if you use Nokia Torchlight it will do. In fact as long as your phone can make a call it can be used for ussd banking.
So let’s head on to the requirements
Requirements
To perform a banking transaction using the ussd method you need the following
- A mobile phone (not necessary a smart phone).
- The Sim card whose number is on your banking profile that is the Sim should be the one you used to open the account.
Lets get started.
To access the banking menu simply dial *919#
- To buy airtime for yourself : Dial *919# after which you dial 1.
- To buy airtime for someone else : Dial *919# after which you dial 2. You will be required to input his / her phone number, please do make sure you double check the phone number as the bank would not be held responsible if you credit a wrong phone number.
- To transfer money to a UBA bank account : Dial *919#, and then dial 3. You will be required to give the destination account number as well. Please before the transaction is finalized, you would be shown the name on that account number, do very well to confirm before moving on.
- To transfer money to a non-UBA bank account : dial *919#, and then dial 4. You would be also asked for the destination account number and the destination bank. After you fill in those details correctly, make sure you confirm with the full name before pressing send.
- To check your account balance : simply dial *919#, and dial 6. You will only be asked for your pon, after which your account balance will pop up on your screen.
- To buy mobile data for yourself : dial *919#, and then you dial 8 which means next. On the next screen that will pop up dial 2.
- To buy mobile data for someone else : dial *919#, and then also dial 8 which indicates Next. On the new screen that will pop up you would need to dial 3
Those are some of the basic USSD codes and their strings. Although, I believe the bank charges you for using the ussd service but believe me when I say it is far cheaper than staying in the bank all day exposing yourself to the risk of corona virus.
If your got a smart phone and would love to perform more banking transactions, I would advise you download the UBA mobile baking application from the Google play store or apple appstore.