M – KESHO – Mobile commerce at play

Equity bank and Safaricom recently joined hands to come up with M-kesho a service that is surely going to change the face of E-commerce and M-commerce in Africa.
The service will allow users to perform basic banking transactions like deposits, withdrawals, loan applications (from as low as Kshs 100/-), processing and reception right from their handsets and also earn interest on your mobile account, The application is built with the ability to score a customer’s credit rating using 6 months history of his M-pesa centric balances. Customers will be able to request for insurance policies and get covered without having to walk into Insurance Company or see an insurance agent. The customer will be covered by the terms and conditions of operating the account once they request for the policy. The premiums payment will be tiered so as not to lock out those who truly need them. The mobile system will also allow the customer to check their last 5 transactions on their linked account. The innovation is set to deepen the uptake of mobile banking that has been adopted to varying levels of functionality by several commercial banks, including Kenya commercial bank, Family, and standard Chartered bank. The newly introduced M-Kesho is set to be a rudimentary credit card facility, allowing users to spend money they don’t have and pay later, although the loan approval is likely to take longer than typical credit cards. Safaricom says it has over 250 business partners who accept payments for their services through M-Pesa, up from 75 in the last quarter of 2009. They include utility firms, insurance companies, educational, hospital and government institutions. Safaricom and Equity bank intend to carry out media promotions on these services to educate customers on how to register for the M-pesa equity bank account. One important thing to note is the use of the existing M-pesa agent. M-pesa agents are urged to apply to offer these services in their outlets to further supplement their commissions. The M-kesho service is a big boon to Kenyans especially to the people in the rural areas who find it hard to access loan facilities.