Speaking to TechMoran after the announcement of the deal, Mr Chege Thumbi, Group Director IT and Operations, Chase Bank, said, “The partnership will see Chase Bank and the iHub nurture the local innovations built at th iHub into innovative products and solutions for the wider market.”Chase Bank will also be ready to fund, mentor and build a business case around innovations built at the iHub and as well help the teams to reach out to the market.
That makes so much sense and Josiah Mugambi, the Executive Director of iHub also agrees.
The partnership will see innovators conceptualize ideas, analyse test and validate them and successfully deploy them as solutions to problems in the community. It’s not about just developers, it’s about creating needed solutions in the market.
Chase Bank also sees the partnership as a way to help it maintain its position as one the most innovative banks in Kenya and another opportunity to help it move banking beyond mobile money payments to virtual currencies, cashless economies, with financial services innovation that will extend conversations in the banking sector beyond traditional modes of transacting to a technology driven system.
This will position it at the forefront in excellence in product development.
Chase Bank in February last year launched a mobile platform dubbed Mfukoni to enable customers access all banking products and services securely and without any hurdles by simply using their phones. The platform can be used on both USSD and Smart Phones as an mobile app.
In March last year, Chase Bank announced its commitment to support tech entrepreneurship and committed $45,000) to support Pivot East 2014 competition.