Equity bank will officially wade into the mobile banking market beginning July this year, a move that is expected to shake the telecoms market.
The bank will open a platform that allows itr customers make payments and cash transfers from their mobile phones under its recently awarded Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) license.
To this end, Equity is issuing all its customers free SIM cards to register for the service through which the bank also plans to disburse short-term loans to its customers at an interest rate of between one per cent and two per cent per month, compared to an average market rate of five per cent. continue...
“Equity Bank staff will begin trialing the MVNO service today as the final round of testing before the service goes live to the public in July 2014,” said the Equity Bank chief executive James Mwangi.
Safaricom’s M-Shwari customers are charged 7.5 per cent per month and most card-based lenders in the local market charge about five per cent per month.
What may make the likes of Safaricom further shudder is the fact that Equity bank customers will pay a maximum charge of Sh25 to send any amount of money within the network, compared to the Sh125 fee the telecoms operators charge users to transfer the maximum Sh70,000 within their network.
Effectively Safaricom’s popular M-Pesa service will face stiff challenge since Equity bank intends to disburse loans and offer cash transfer services for the lender’s eight million customers on its service.
“We are first in Kenya, first in Africa to offer a full banking suite through an MVNO. Our partnership with Airtel will enable us to roll out similar products in Uganda and Rwanda where we both have operations,” said Mwangi.
In preparation for roll out, Equity Bank has already put in a 300 seat customer contact center fully integrated with voice and social media and operational 24 hours 7 days a week.
“Equity MVNO will simply mirror all its banking services into the mobile phone. By linking the account to the mobile phone, customers can apply for loans, move money into and from their bank accounts and pay bills. Customers will be able to carry out cross border transactions from their mobile phones. They will receive international remittances onto their accounts and access through their mobile phone numbers, Equity Agents, ATMs or branches,” said Mwangi.
Source: BiztechAfrica
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