Breaking: Kenya’s M-Shwari Crosses the 10 Million Customer Mark

Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa’s M-Shwari has today announced it has signed up 10 million customers vindicating its innovation of offering savings and loan products through the mobile phone.

In a statement to TechMoran, Mr. Isaac Awuondo, CBA’s Group Managing Director said, “We are delighted to announce that we signed on our 10 millionth customer this week, and this cements CBA’s credentials as the category leader in this space. M-Shwari is leading the revolution towards a cash-light economy in East Africa, and today it ranks as one of the world’s most successful full service mobile banking deployment that has managed to reach scale in just over 2 years.

Launched  on November 27, 2012 by CBA in partnership with Safaricom Limited, M-Shwari’s cumulative deposits gross over Kshs 153 billion and are expected to grow as mobile penetration increases in Kenya. CBA also launched a similar service in Tanzania dubbed M-Pawa.

M-Shwari allows mobile owners to save and borrow directly from their devices without going to the banks and runs on a dynamic mobile phone based credit scoring system. CBA says it has extended loans amounting Kshs 29 billion, and has been processing an average of 50,000 loans per day over the last two years.

According to CBA, 59% of M-Shwari customers are male while women account for 41 per cent of the customer base, with the highest usage witnessed among 24-35 year age group. Women are however using the savings product more, while men over of 40 years are saving at a higher rate than their younger male counterparts.Just recently, TechMoran covered Mkopo Rahisi, an Inventure-run app helping Kenyans to borrow minus saving. Mkopo Rahisi tracks a user’s call and M-Pesa history to determine their elligibility. M-Shwari will have to device ways to take on Mkopo Rahisi.