The Bank of Kigali (BK), Rwanda’s leading bank by assets, has partnered with MTN, the country’s top telecoms operator. The two say they are committed to bringing financial services closer to the people and to expand further the potential that mobile money services have on the unbanked.
BK Chief Operating Officer, Lawson Naibo said the agreement is probably the biggest partnership between a telecom and a financial institution in Rwanda.
Presently, 41 out of 56 BK branches are offering the MTN mobile services, including account opening, cash deposits, transfers and withdrawals, while the remaining ones will join later this year.
Naibo said an estimated 45 percent of households in Rwanda have access to a mobile phone and MTN mobile money could leverage the bank’s extensive branch network.
According to him, this would increase the penetration of their service, while they can capitalise on the increased footfall to bring their customers into the formal banking sector.
This partnership will be ideal since financial services in different countries, have initiated Cellphone innovation and development.
At the same time MTN Rwanda’s CEO Khaled Mikkawi was cautios.
Mikkawi said: “The mobile money should not be viewed as competition to consumer banking but as a catalyst to services offered by leading financial institutions like BK. Rwandans can only benefit from greater convergence between conventional banking services and the mobility that mobile telephony offers.”
Mobile banking offers services of balance checking, accounts transactions, payment and credit applications is a term used for performing balance checks, account transactions by the touch of a mobile phone button.
The first service was known as SMS banking in 1999 — when it was introduced in Europe. Mobile banking has grown tremendously across the globe.
