KCB eyes huge mobile lending deals with system upgrade

The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has upgraded its mobile banking platform as it looks to grow its market share in the lucrative mobile lending sector.

The lender last week launched an upgraded KCB M-Pesa platform - introducing new lending and savings product offerings for the firm’s 14 million subscribers.

KCB Chief Executive Joshua Oigara reaffirmed the company’s strategy to grow its services across the region in an event attended by Safaricom boss Bob Collymore and ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru.

“Last year, the industry registered almost 44 million accounts and of those, more than half, 27 million, are mobile,” said Oigara.

“This is also evident in the industry lending portfolio where if you look at KCB M-Pesa and M-Shwari, we are almost lending Sh150 billion - translating to half of the new businesses coming through mobile.”

Tailor-made products

The platform equipped with new software and hardware powered by Huawei allows the bank to offer tailor-made products.

This enables users to re-structure the loans they obtain, even as they continue to service the same.

Customers also have a choice of a fixed deposit account that locks up their money for up to a year or a target savings account.

In both instances, customers earn an interest of up to 6.3 per cent annually on their savings. KCB M-Pesa also provides for top-up loans, a capability that allows customers to borrow multiple times in the same month without being required to clear their outstanding balance up to their assigned limit.

The service offers real-time processing of loans at 4.08 per cent interest.

“We are continually reimagining digital finance. There is the need for us to embrace innovation and digitisation beyond our current realm of operations” said Oigara.