Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group and Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) have entered into a strategic partnership to share payment infrastructure and capitalise on their expansive branch networks locally in line with the bank’s financial inclusion agenda.
PCK recently launched its PostaPesa e-payment solution and the partnership will see KCB be the official Settlement Bank of Posta in Agency Banking, in a partnership that also includes Credit Bank, ABC Bank, Cooperative Bank and Faulu Kenya.
“We have enjoyed a close relationship with PCK for over 20 years and today we are happy to take this partnership a notch higher in a bid to reach out and offer financial services to the majority of the Kenyans in the country,” said Sam Makome, KCB managing director.
Makome said KCB is at the forefront of empowering communities through a deliberate financial inclusion agenda which has ensured that banking services are easily accessible to households and enterprises across the country using agents dubbed KCB Mtaani, and the recently launched KCB M-benki and KCB iBank.
PCK has re-aligned its strategic objectives and is leveraging on technology and innovation to offer online business operations with the main objective of driving fundamental shift in the value proposition to their customers.
“PCK plays a very crucial role in provision of Financial Services to the unbanked and as such it has been included in its Corporate Strategic Plan, 2013-2016,”said PCK postmaster general Enock Kinara.
“Therefore, the capacity of Posta to provide financial services is not in doubt. The corporation recently acquired a state-of-the-art e-payments solution at a cost of US$1 million.”
The solution, branded PostaPesa, enables Posta to transact various business operations electronically, some of which are part of the partnership with KCB.
They include agency banking, mobile money transfers, card-based transactions, e-commerce, online disbursements, e-payments for utility bills, e-ticketing and e-government services.
KCB said the partnership in the banking and telecommunication sector has enabled rapid growth in the financial services sector which has reshaped the parameters of banking operations.
PCK has an extensive network of more than 600 offices while KCB has a wide branch network of 175 branches in the country a partnership that will see the increase in customers access points.
