How efficient is your mobile banking platform?

By Jackson Okoth

The menu available to mobile phone users with bank accounts, is getting longer, bigger and exciting.

It is now possible for  customers to deposit or withdraw cash from  their bank accounts using a mobile phone.  This can happen without visiting an automated teller machine or even or the banking hall.

Customers are able to pay school fees through account cash transfers, collect rent, insurance and other payments using a registered Safaricom, Airtel Orange or a Yu line.

Apart from paying utility bills by phone, it is also possible to transact on your account, transfer funds between M-Pesa and the bank account, inquire account details or even purchase airtime.

In the last few months, commercial banks have unveiled intense media campaign to sell mobile banking products.

The latest entrant is National Bank of Kenya and Co-operative Bank, both significant players in the retail banking space.  Other commercial banks in the mobile cash business are Orange Telkom and Equity Bank’s IkoPesa and Family Bank’s PesaPap service.

Safaricom’s M-Pesa has about 14 million subscribers and 27,000 agents countrywide according to the company’s statistics. Its M-kesho platform with Equity Bank has over 700 subscribers. But as more cutting edge banking products crowd the market, suspicion and deep apprehension remains for many over safety, security and confidentiality of existing mobile banking platforms.

Security concerns

“The responsibility of ensuring mobile phone and the personal  identification number  (PIN) issued are secure is bestowed upon the customer. Once a loss or breach is reported to us, we block access to the account,” said Stella Mwangi, a contact centre agent at a leading commercial bank.

Ms Mwangi says a customer can change the PIN number if it has been compromised without necessarily visiting the bank or even reporting the matter.

“I still feel uncomfortable with the fact details of my bank transactions forms an electronic trail on my mobile phone after a transaction has been executed. In the case of ATM transactions, receipts issued by the machines can be destroyed, leaving no paper trail,” said Luke Ombok, a sales executive in Nairobi.

A major complaint made by customers is the longer time taken for their mobile phone transactions to be executed. Some observe it can take up to  two days required before a deposited cheque matures for payment.

Rozzie Kirui a bank customer in Nakuru, who made two cash deposits from her mobile phone between April and June this year, says she was taken aback when it took weeks for her transactions to reflect on her account, even after several inquiries to the bank.