In 2014, Airtel Kenya launched theAirtel Money VISA card in partnership with Chase Bank that allowed customers to withdraw cash from any Visa or Kenswitch ATM and conduct online transactions. The Airtel Money Card mirrors the customer’s personal Airtel Money account. This means whatever balance the customer has in his personal Airtel money account, is equivalent to how much he has on the Airtel Money card. In 2015, Airtel announced another partnership with I&M bank that allows Airtel Money users who are also I&M Bank account holders’ to link their money wallets to their bank accounts. This means that they can “pull” money from their bank accounts into their Airtel Money wallets or “push” money from their Airtel Money wallets to their I&M Bank accounts automatically.
Airtel Kenya is set to launch a similar partnership with National Bank 0f Kenya that allows users to link their Bank account with the Airtel Money service. The partnership will further allow National Bank customers to send money to their bank accounts from the Airtel money accounts. Airtel currently has Airtel Money with 3 Million registered mobile money users and 9,986 active agents based off the Q1 2016 statistics by the Communications Authority of Kenya.
