Category Archives: Kenswitch

Huduma: The Bank Branch of the Future?

A visit to a Huduma centre showed that a shared building or hall where different banks serve their customers  may be the future of the bank branch. 

Despite new mobile, ATM, and internet channels, customers still need to come into bank halls quite a bit, as seen by the queues at beginning and end of each month. A lot of this is because customers need to bring and and remit payments that end up going to other banks either via direct deposit, cheques, or RTGS. Does the money need to physically move? No But the customers do, going from building to building to do single transactions at many banks. 

It helps if you have a place like Sarit centre which is an banking attractive destination because it has so many bank branches under one roof, with many more in adjacent buildings.
 
Can banks share a hall like a Huduma one, and second some staff there to serve their customers in such a centre?. This way they can share the cost of security, which can be handled by armed guards outside, and leave a friendly customer interface inside that is devoid of bullet-proof glass (like some Uganda bank halls)
Every bank that has a branch network incurs a repeat of the same costs of staff, security, cash handling, advertising signs, stationery  etc. They also have building leases, insurance, and fees per branch or outlet  – such Kshs 65,000 or $765 per year for an ATM license in Nairobi County.
Big banks have invested in big branch networks, but can smaller banks share halls in new neighborhoods or towns like Eastleigh and Kiserian that experience rapid growth, and the banks have to catch up. Shall we see a bank hall or post office hall in such a place with 20 desks, and 20 sets of staff for 20 different banks?

There are some signs of this coming:

  •  One is the precedent that Kenswitch set, in which about two dozen small banks and financial institutions got together to share an ATM network that their customers can all use. 
  • Another example is large hardware, pharmacy, and agro-vet stores in rural Kenya that  simultaneously act as agents for several banks (which they can do as bank agents, but not mobile money agents). 
  • Another is the trend of Nairobi malls grouping as many bank ATM’s in one area e.g. at Galleria and Junction malls. There is no true saving yet as each bank still has an idle security guard to ‘look after’ their machine.

Friday, news, jobs

Pesa Point ATM’s
Pesa Point, an independent network of automated teller machines (ATM’s) will officially launch on Friday October 21st. In a Sunday Nation feature on the launch (PDF) , Paynet MD Bernard Mathewman said eight partners are expected to be part of the initial launch. One Bank likely to be among the first partners is Equity Bank. Also NIC, whose major shareholders own Paynet could also link up their 17 MOVE Zone ATM’s to Pesa Point.

The company says 30 are ready now and they hope to have 120 independent pesa point ATM’s by year end in hotel lobbies, supermarkets, petrol stations, and other retail outlets (Caltex has already signed on). For comparison, Co-operative Bank has 58 ATM’s (31 in Nairobi) and KCB has 86, with plans to have 115 by the end of the year while another network of shared ATM’s, Kenswitch, was launch in 2003 and now has about a dozen banks whose customers use each others 30 ATM’s.

New Bond available
The Athi River Mining bond is now available to investors. The Issue is for Kshs 800 million, offered on a floating rate basis with a final maturity in 2010 and is priced at a margin of 175 basis points (1.75%) above the 91 day T-Bill.

Applications and payments must be delivered to to either Barclays Financial Services, Stanbic Bank Kenya, Dyer & Blair Investment Bank, Ashbhu Securities Limited, or Dry Associates Limited by 3.00 p.m. on Monday, 24 October 2005 with payment made out by banker’s Cheque or by bank transfer/remittance to the Athi River Mining Ltd Bond Receiving Payments Account, in the books of Cooperative Bank, Account Number 011 2030 2835 00, Branch Code 11002, Nairobi. If the offer is over-subscribed, preference will be given to investors in notes greater than 5 million shillings. The bond will then be listed on the sting on the NSE, availing a secondary trading market

KRA anniversary
Also on Friday, President Kibaki will mark the 10th anniversary of the Kenya Revenue Authority at KICC.

Nairobi marathon
The registration deadline for the Standard Chartered Nairobi Marathon has been extended to Saturday. Many City roads will be closed on Sunday morning to facilitate the marathon.

Low cost housing scheme
Superior Homes will put up 400 3- bedroom apartments bungalows (phase 1) to be known as Green Park Housing Development at Stoney Athi, along Mombasa road.

Jobs
several accounting positions: at Safaricom Details will soon be posted at their website and the deadline for applications to hr@safaricom.co.ke is 25th October. Positions are:

– senior accountant – reporting
– senior accountant – financial systems & analysis
– senior accountant – accounts receivables
– senior accountant – payables (2 positions: local and foreign)
– senior accountant – general ledger
– senior accountant – cash book
– accountant – accounts payable (2 positions: local and foreign)
– accountant – accounts receivables
– cashier

chief accountant: at Oserian Development Company (one of Kenya’s largest flower grower based in Naivasha). Job entails supervising all accounts and payroll staff, data input for preparation of monthly financial statements and audits, financial and system controls, treasury management and compliance with legislative and accounting standard. Applicants must have bachelor’s degrees (accounts or finance option) and at least 3 years work experience at senior management level preferably as chief financial accountant. Must also be a fully qualified accountant with 5 years work experience. Apply to the human resource manager, jobs@oserian.com by November 4.

loans manager: at the Kenya Tourism Development Corporation. Job entails drawing and implementing lending policies to facilitate processing award and recovery process. Also maintain records of loan applications, set performance objectives, coordinate staff and educate the public on the corporations lending policies and requirements. Applicants should have an economics degree with a bias towards development finance, postgraduate finance qualification and at least 10 years relevant working experience at a senior level. Apply to the managing director, ktdc@wananchi.co.ke by October 26