KCB-Mpesa account pushes customers to over 500,000

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenya Commercial Bank has recorded a phenomenal growth in new partnership with Safaricom aimed at offering cheap loans through M-Pesa.

In an interview, KCB Chief Executive Officer Joshua Oigara said 56,000 people are opening the account per day pushing the customers to over 500,000.

“We see the partnership with Safaricom as a game-changer in the financial services sector.  For us, such partnerships are meant to make financial services more accessible to the general population,” he said. 

“This is a crucial part of our effort to make serious progress in addressing the deep poverty experienced by millions of citizens across the East African region and beyond, many of whom remain outside the formal financial system,” he added.

The KCB-Mpesa account enables customers to get loans using their mobile phones, the loans are offered with a flexible repayment period ranging from one month to six months. In addition the facility fee for the loan will start from as low as 2 per cent per month. Customers will also have the option of two fixed savings options, a fixed deposit account and a target savings account. 

As a requirement to qualify for loan, Oigara says one must have been a Safaricom subscriber and M-PESA customer for six months, and not listed in Credit Reference Bureaus (CRB).

He says the KCB M-PESA account customers will only be required to dial *555# to see how much they can borrow and follow the prompts to secure the loan which will be sent to their mobile phones instantly. “The loan amount is determined by the amount of savings that the customer has made M-PESA balance, and their savings on both Safaricom and KCB platforms.”

The new product see both institutions deepen their strategic partnership in an area where their collaboration is already paying off.  In the last one year, said Mr. Oigara, KCB has seen its customer transactions with M-PESA triple to Sh125 billion, while the volume of transactions has grown from 10,000 a day to 100,000.  Now, with a dedicated product with the most comprehensive offering, the partnership will widen the possibilities of what customers can do using their phones. 

“Mobile technology has greatly transformed our lifestyles in the 21st century.   It is increasingly making it more convenient for customers to pay utility bills, withdraw or deposit money in their bank accounts as well as borrow by the click of a button,” said Safaricom Chief Executive Officer, Bob Collymore during the launch. 

Mr. Collymore added that with nearly 20 million customers, M-PESA has been recognised as the single-most largest contributor towards bridging the financial inclusion gap in the country. 

The latest innovation, KCB M-PESA Account, will without doubt play a crucial role in deepening financial inclusion in the country and the region.