Yemisi Izuora
Hitchcock Michalski – a leading global branding agency, has received an international award at the prestigious SACSC Retail Design and Development awards, for its architectural creativity of Access Bank CLOSA – an initiative of Access bank to provide access to financial services within neighbourhoods.
The award which was held in South Africa is a yearly event which seeks to recognise and reward innovative industry leaders who creatively design exceptional shopping centers and retail environments that have created impactful economic value across Africa. Hitchcock has emerged winner in the international category of this award for its innovative design of Access bank CLOSA container branches.
The CLOSA branches are branded cabins constructed from shipping containers, situated in metropolitan areas and offer banking services such as cash deposits and cash withdrawals, customer on-boarding, funds transfer subject to a limit of N150,000, BVN enrolment, card issuance, card activation, cheque deposit, bills payment, and ATM services. They are set to begin operations in Port Harcourt, Lagos, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Delta, Anambra, and Kogi.
Speaking about the award, Fiona Hitchcock, Managing Partner at Hitchcock Michalski expressed her delight about the award and her work with Access Bank. “We are extremely elated about the international recognition our work with Access bank has brought to us. And in moments like this when the Nigerian government and players in the financial industry are striving towards closing the financial exclusion gap, we are particularly excited to be a channel through which many more unbanked populations can be reached”. We are proud of the impact our work is having in Nigeria and we are committed to creating more impactful initiatives across the country.
Since its existence, Hitchcock Michalski has remained a people-focused branding agency and has helped notable companies across diverse sectors build distinctive brands.