Arun Mathur, CEO, I&M Bank Ltd (L) and Duncan Otieno, CEO, MobiKash Ltd (R) during the launch of a partnership that will see the Bank provide its financial services at authorised MobiKash agents outlets/FILE
Through the partnership, I&M Bank customers will able to withdraw and deposit cash at MobiKash agent outlets, send money from a MobiKash account to an I&M Bank account, as well as send money from an I&M Bank account to a MobiKash account.
“We are glad to roll out our services at the MobiKash agents outlets. We are now able to reach out to a much wider geographic spread of customers in both urban and rural centers without having to incur costs in brick and mortar branches,” I&M Bank Group CEO Arun Mathur noted.
This deal also signifies the bank’s venture into Agency Banking with the brand “I&M KARIBU”.
The services will be initially rolled out in about 500 of MobiKash’s agent outlets spread across the 47 counties nationwide.
Commenting on the partnership, MobiKash CEO Duncan Otieno stated that the partnership with the bank targets to increase more transactions at MobiKash agent outlets as well as grow their presence.
“We have invested in integration of our bank’s systems where mobile and card payments are fully synchronised with the bank’s core-banking system. This will in turn enable the bank to process transactions conducted at the MobiKash agent outlets in real-time,” he said.
Subscribers can access MobiKash Mobile Money service by dialling *365# across all networks.
MobiKash will manage all its agents while I&M Bank will play an oversight role in this partnership. The Bank will support the agents in all the regions through its branch network where agents will maintain their floats in the Bank’s MobiKash trust account.
The bank plans to roll out more agents countrywide by mid this year, and will start rolling out agency banking in its Rwanda, Tanzania and Mauritius subsidiaries from the year 2016.
According to the 2013 FinAccess survey, agency banking has continued to contribute tremendously in enhancing the reach and coverage of financial services to Kenyans.
The study further showed that the proportion of the adult population using formal financial services rose to 66.7percent in 2013 from 27.4 percent in 2006.
