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Good practice Imported

UBA's Braille Account-Opening Form — A Promised First for Blind Bank Customers in Nigeria, Two Years On

Nigeria · Lagos · See the Nigeria profile · See the Lagos profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 82% 52/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In June 2023 UBA launched Nigeria's first braille account-opening form for blind customers, with plans to replicate it across 19 African countries. By late 2025, independent reporting found most blind customers had never seen or been offered it.

UBA's Braille Account-Opening Form — A Promised First for Blind Bank Customers in Nigeria, Two Years On

Details

Promoter
United Bank for Africa (UBA)
Period
2023–2025
Keywords
banking, financial inclusion, disability accessibility, fintech

Context

On 27 June 2023, United Bank for Africa (UBA) launched what it called the first braille account-opening form in Nigerian and African banking, meant to let blind customers open accounts independently, with plans to extend it across the 19 African countries where UBA operates.

Results

An October 2025 investigation found that, more than two years on, many blind UBA customers reported never having seen or been offered the braille form at their branches. Customers described being asked to bring sighted companions, being denied ATM or debit cards, being required to sign indemnity forms not asked of sighted customers, and having restricted mobile-app access.

Conclusions

This practice is included as a cautionary case: a genuinely novel, well-publicised accessibility commitment that, on the evidence available two years later, was not operationalised at branch level or matched by accessible digital banking channels.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Cost of the original form design/launch not disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Launched June 2023; unresolved as of the October 2025 investigation.
Staffing & skills
UBA branch staff (form distribution never verified as trained/equipped)

Conditions for success

  • branch-level staff training and enforcement to translate a headline commitment into real access

Common failure modes

  • no evidence of the planned 19-country rollout being delivered
  • form reported as largely absent even from Lagos branches two years after launch

Where it fits

Governance type
private company
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle-income

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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