Kenswitch Kenya Limited and Absa Bank Kenya Plc (formerly Barclays) have announced a partnership that will see the bank’s customers access more than 2.2K ATMs on the Kenswitch network. According to the partners, this should allow additional access to banking services.
Kenswitch customers will also be able to transact on Absa’s ATMs in Kenya.
Kenswitch has more than 10 million members.
The firm supports interoperability among banks, where customers can access banking services and products across Kenswitch branded ATM outlets in areas where partner banks have no physical address or presence.
It also provides over 2,200 ATMs, more than 20,000 Agency Banking outlets, and over 15,000 merchant POS outlets.
Kenswitch works with 26 member banks that are connected to its local network.
ATM usage has been dropping in the recent past following the rise of digital banking. Some lenders such as Equity have been closing some of their ATM outlets as members prefer to access their services using online means, including the widespread use of bank apps such as Equity Mobile.
Quotes
“We are delighted to welcome ABSA to the Kenswitch network. The addition of ABSA to our network is a significant milestone toward our core objective of ensuring interoperable real-time payments across all banking channels. This continued growth reaffirms our commitment to increasingly providing value to our customers and deepening financial inclusion,” said Kenswitch Chairman Yousef Bazian.
Absa Bank Kenya Managing Director, Jeremy Awori said: “Scaling our financial services through our strategic partner Kenswitch expands customer access to our banking solutions across the country. The majority of Kenyans, roughly 70% of the total population, also live in rural areas. As a result, this collaboration strengthens our banking network and makes Absa products and services more accessible, which is an important part of our customer obsession agenda.”
Kenswitch Managing Director Karimi Ithau said: “This is in line with CBK’s National Payments Strategy that seeks to provide customers with a seamless, secure and convenient and wider access to banking services as we build a collaborative payments ecosystem. This initiative is designed to create a shared platform for financial services provision that is convenient, reliable, secure and that seeks to provide wider access to financial services to ABSA customers and also to other member bank customers within our network.”
