In March, KCB and Telco Safaricom partnered to launch the KCB M-pesa account, a facility aimed at increasing financial inclusion through savings as well as issuing loans through Safaricom’s mobile money service M-pesa. The KCB-Mpesa account allows customers to get loans using their mobile phones with repayment periods ranging from one month to six months at interest rates from 4-6% per month depending on the repayment period. Customers can also save using the account with two options of a fixed deposit account and a savings account available.
KCB Group today announced their FY 2015 numbers, where the bank highlighted the continued growth of the mobile platforms which included KCB M-Pesa account and KCB Mobi. During the release of Q3 2015 numbers in October, KCB announced that it had 6 Million customers with 4.2 million customers on the KCB M-pesa account while the KCB Mobi account had 1.5 million customers. As of the FY numbers, KCB M-Pesa account had grown their customers to 4.7 Million customers while KCB Mobi customers stood at 2 Million customers. Mobile has driven KCB customers to 10 Million.
Loans disbursed via the mobile platform represented 95% of KCB’s total loans, with 3.5 Million loans issued. Through KCB M-Pesa, the bank issued Kshs. 6.7 Billion in loans with customers saving Kshs. 2.4 Billion. The average loans issued by the platform was Khs. 2,000. Through KCB Mobi, the bank issued Kshs. 2.3 Billion with outstanding loans at Kshs. 600 Million. Average loans via Mobi stood at Kshs. 5,000. The bank also stated its working on building a new platform aimed at making the process seamless.
Overall, the bank registered a 12% rise in Profit Before Tax to Kshs 26.5 Billion Profit After Tax Grew By 16% to Kshs. 19.6 Billion.
