KENYA: Equity’s digital platforms stomp out traditional banking

Equity Bank’s first quarter results are a clear indication Kenyan’s prefer digital banking over the traditional brick and mortar branches.

During the review period, the lender reported a 157 per cent increase in the value of transactions through its EazzyPay platform which rose to Sh2.8 billion from Sh1.1 billion the same period in 2017.

This has seen branch transactions numbers drop further by three per cent with no growth recorded in terms of the value of transactions.

Transactions on the lender’s EazzyBiz platform grew 78 per cent to 600,000 valued at Sh89.4 billion compared to Sh58.4 billion last year. EazzyApp also reported a 36 per cent rise in transactions to 70.5 million valued at Sh38 billion.

According to Equity CEO James Mwangi, the velocity of a digital transaction to a manual transaction is the real focus on making the economy efficient, driven by cashless transactions.

Through its Equitel platform, the bank has been able to transact cash to a tune of Sh572.23 billion for the period between October and December last year, according to data by the Communications Authority.

This was about 27 per cent of the total Sh2.12 trillion transacted via mobile money platforms over the period.

Equitel currently operated with two million customers making it one of the fastest growing MVNO while Payment gateway for businesses Jenga API signed up to 2,000 large and small enterprises.

SOURCE: THE STAR