Strategies Used by Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited to Enhance Mobile Banking Services for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya

Abstract

Kenya’s mobile money transfer pioneered by Safaricom’s Mpesa platform has been widely taunted as revolutionary because of opening up financial services to the masses, mostly to the unbanked population. Most commercial banks have been quick to adopt the spin-off from this innovative mobile money wallet platform through adoption of mobile banking. It has now became apparent that in the coming years banking will move from the more conventional brick and mortar to the more interactive platforms of which mobile banking will be the foremost. This state of affairs compelled the researcher to conduct this study on the strategies used by Equity Bank (Kenya) Ltd to enhance mobile banking services for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) who make up a key constituent of Kenya’s economy. The data was collected from senior bank managers within Equity Bank (Kenya) Ltd. The researcher used an interview guide to collect data from respondents. The interview guide had different questions majorly covering the factors that have enhanced and inhibited mobile banking services to MSMEs. The study observes that mobile banking offers a lucrative opportunity for financial institutions and its potential is yet to be fully exploited. There are a number of factors that that either hinder or propel use of mobile banking by MSMEs, bearing in mind that the operating environment is also not static but evolving. The design of effective strategies should therefore ride on competencies inherent within an organization in addition to taking advantage environmental factors that also favour it while at the same time curtailing threats posed by competition. The study therefore concludes that financial institutions should therefore come up with mobile banking strategies, products and solutions geared towards MSMEs whose needs are seen to vary from other customer segments. Such strategies will offer a competitive edge to banks in an industry dominated by mobile Telcos.