CEO Weekend: Equatorial commercial bank partners Postbank to roll out agency banking

Recently, the Equatorial Commercial Bank won the 2014 2^nd Runner up for the Best Bank in Mobile Banking in the Think Business Banking Awards  with Ms.ECB Acting MD, Ms. Shamira Dostmohamed terming it  “a deliberate effort to provide convenience that our customers deserve.”

Now the bank is back with  agency banking services in partnership with the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank’s (Postbank) Kenswitch – enabled platform in a new bid to increase presence across the country and meet the rising demand for its services.

Speaking during the launch of the service, Dostmohamed said the bank is targeting to aggressively grow its customer numbers by providing customized repertoire of financial services that will translate into financial empowerment of our customers through enhanced reach, accessibility and information.

She added, “In an age of convenience with everything within our fingertips, it is imperative as a business we increase our brand touch points to best meet our customer needs, and accessibility of our service remains pivotal to our growth strategy”. We have opted for innovation designed around our customer demands and expectations and this is the beginning of greater things to come from ECB.

Cognizant of the percentage of unbanked Kenyans, creating grass root access to formal banking service represents a deliberate approach by ECB to bank the unbanked. Through this partnership, current and potential ECB customers will be able to access agency services from 102 Postbank locations.

“With our positive economic forecast, we expect demand of formal financial services to increase and in anticipation of this growth we are determined to champion industry innovation through our customer offering especially in the SME and Retail space” said Ms. Dostmohamed.

Speaking at the same event, Postbank Ag. MD Anne Waiyego said Postbank is keen on leveraging its extensive network and versatile infrastructure to provide reliable services to Kenyans. “Our primary goal is to serve the Kenyan population by rendering a range of critical banking services that will uplift livelihoods,” she said.

She noted that Postbank has invested

heavily in building infrastructural capacity and is capitalizing technology integration to diversify its service offering and ultimately increase revenues. “Our synergy with Equatorial Commercial Bank is timely and we see it as value addition to our clientele”. “We believe that with such strategic partnerships, our branches have become vital economic organs in the different counties within Kenya and we are playing a part in increasing accessibility to banking services for Kenyans,” she added.

Mwalimu Sacco recently bought a 51% stake in ECB that will see the country’s largest Sacco become the largest shareholder of ECB and this partnership agreement will enable members access services closer to their work stations.