Mobile technology has greatly transformed our lifestyles in the 21st century.   It is increasingly making it more convenient for customers to pay utility bills, withdraw or deposit money in their bank accounts as well as borrow by the click of a button. This new day and era has inspired KCB and Safaricom to launch yet another new product, now in the mobile banking industry; the KCB-M-PESA Account with the most comprehensive features yet in the market.

The account will enable customers to get loans using their mobile phones, the loans will be offered with a flexible repayment period ranging from one month to six months. In addition, the facility fee for the loan will start from as low as 2% per month. Customers will also have the option of two fixed savings options, a fixed deposit account and a target savings account.

This is a new frontier in the evolution of the mobile money journey for both institutions that will match up the best of what East Africa's leading companies bank have to offer. This product is a crucial answer to the country's effort to empower millions of Kenyans by availing credit conveniently through their mobile phones.

KCB-M-PESA account comes after the two companies set off their strategic partnership in June, last year, and launched their first joint proposition Biashara Smart a range of products, capacity building initiatives and reward programmes aimed at connecting, empowering and growing SMEs. Biashara smart products from KCB and Safaricom enable businesses to operate in a more credible and efficient manner while empowering you with connections that enables you to advance your business.

The package designed for SMEs comes in three categories;

Starter Pack;  one that offers an unsecured loan package from KCB, KCB M - Benki a self-registration mobile based transactional account and a web hosting package that delivers 5 professional e-mails, a .ke domain and a website builder.

Finance; It's more than business as usual at Biashar@Smart Finance. KCB provides business with a comprehensive range of business accounts, short and long term loans, insurance products and cards to suit your unique and diversified business needs.

Communication products; These are a set of communication and financing products, capacity building initiatives and reward programmes aimed at connecting, empowering and growing SMEs.

Following the strategic partnerships between KCB and Safaricom, the financial institution has seen its customer transactions with M-PESA triple to KShs.125 billion, while the volume of transactions has grown from 10,000 a day to 100,000. Kenyans paid bills worth Kshs.1 billion through M-PESA to KCB, deposited KShs.59 billion and withdrew a total of KShs.66 billion.

Having a dedicated product with the most comprehensive offering, both parties are adamant to widen the possibilities of what customers can do using their phones. According to Mr. Joshua Oigara, CEO, KCB Group, the bank has rolled out the service after having collated lessons from experience as the leading bank in the region, and insights from the market to develop this proposition.

With the dynamic industry and growing competitor environment, the customer is seeking more choice in mobile banking.  The customer is seeking for more value and affordable mobile banking solutions in the market

The KCB-M-PESA loan facility will see customers enjoy credit from as low as KShs. 50 to as high as KShs.1 million instantly on their mobile phones an innovation of branchless banking as their next frontier.

To access the service, customers will be required to dial *844#, accept the terms and conditions and proceed to save or borrow depending on their needs. The customer's loan limit will be determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to, the amount of savings that the customer has, the customer's usage of M-PESA, and their savings on other KCB platforms.

The KCB M-PESA Account has flexible repayment periods from one month to six months, levies affordable interest rates starting from 2% while offering access to instant loan facilities on request. The customer can also save, place standing orders or make fixed deposits on their phones.