Kenya Commercial Bank wins premier Africa Social Media Awards

NAIROBI, KENYA: KCB Group has emerged the winner for Africa’s premier social and digital media awards, cementing its position as the region’s leading financial institution.

The largest Bank in the East African region by asset base and branch network was named the winner for “Best Use of Social Media by a Financial Institution in Africa” during the Social Media Africa Awards gala in Lagos Nigeria on Saturday night.

KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara said with the increased brand awareness and loyalty online, KCB has been keen to leverage on social media to meet its business objectives.

“Today, Social Media has grown from being a mere digital channel for “socialising” to one of the most powerful digital marketing tools for products and brands. It has also proven to be a very cost-effective way of communicating to a global audience,” said Mr Oigara after KCB Group won the award.

KCB has invested heavily in social and digital platforms in a bid to reach out to its targeted audience in different locations given its presence in six African countries and a wide network of over 240 branches.

KCB’s journey in Social Media began in 2010 and since then the growth has been tremendous, making it the most followed bank in Kenya. On Twitter, the Bank has 57,142 followers while on Facebook, it is the second most liked page of all lenders in Kenya. The Bank boasts of at least 264,270 likes. Due to the Bank’s huge investment on social media, on average it takes less than 12 minutes for customers to get replies to their queries as more customers turned to Social Media for customer service as opposed to making phone calls.

 “Social and digital media caters for wide demographics regardless of sex, age, and social status. With majority of global internet users aged between 18 to 29 years, we are able to reach a big market for this age range and this win is a living endorsement that our investment and strategy is moving in the right direction,” Mr Oigara said. 

KCB shrugged off stiff competition from among other finalists in the category who included Safaricom Limited, Guarantee Trust Bank-Nigeria, Access Bank- Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC-Nigeria, Zenith Bank-Nigeria, Diamond Bank-Nigeria, Standard Bank-South Africa, Finance Trust-Uganda and Fidelity Bank-Ghana.

The awards are meant to appreciate the use of social and digital media as a means of mobilization and awareness sub-platform for deepening access to and enhancing the use of Social Media and to facilitate the clear-cut awareness about its positive impact.

The judging criteria done late last year, involved a Virtual Council and Jury consisting of specialized and related professionals and a second phase involving online public voting on the Social Media Awards Africa Website.

Last year, KCB Group was named the best bank in Kenya at the 2014 Euromoney Awards in London, England. The UK-based financial magazine, EuroMoney Awards, honours firms with extensive global capabilities, depth of investment products, as well as dedication to developing and providing innovative products and solutions that ensure customer satisfaction.

Similarly, the bank was named the winner in four categories; namely Best Bank in Agency Banking; Best SME Bank; Best Asset Finance and Best Recovery Bank which went to its subsidiary business, KCB Bank Uganda during the inaugural East Africa Banking Awards 2014 Gala Dinner at the Safari Part Hotel organized by Think Business.