Stanbic Bank to offer suppliers short-term loans

Golden coils in soil with young plants.

Distributors and suppliers can now access short-term mobile loans from Stanbic Bank Kenya.

This follows the launch of a new automated supply chain financing platform dubbed M-Jeki. The platform offers short-term loans based on the needs of clients across industries and sectors.

The launch follows a successful pilot with Safaricom dealers and agents during which they were provided with automated short-term business loans to finance M-Pesa float, airtime and devices.

Over the last 12 months, 314 agents and dealers accessed short-term loans to the tune of Sh10.3 billion.

Head of Business Banking at Stanbic Bank Kenya Thomas Bisonga said the new platform rides on technology. “At the core of this proposition is a robust technology platform to facilitate convenient delivery of the solution,” he said.

Mr Bisonga said the solution had been inspired by feedback from distributors and suppliers, whose constant pain points are having to wait for the requisite 30 to 90-day period before invoices mature for payments.

The bank has also partnered with Virtual City, a local fintech, to build a more robust platform.