good use
Pesa Point’s new ATM’s continue to multiply as they are quickly installed in unexpected places. An ATM is such a useful banking facility that it is shocking how many people still patronize banks that don’t have them. One problem with ATM’s thought is their high initial cost, which can range from 2 to 4 million shillings and their need for secure wall/building locations. But Pesa Point seem to have worked out that problem by coming up with light weight, stand-alone, low cost machines which can be easily be set up. Here are a few more places that Pesa Point should set up machines to cope with our economy in which hard cash is still the currency of choice:

(1) inside bars & clubs e.g. Choices or K2 so you don’t have to drive off (drunk) at 2.a.m to withdraw more cash
(2) all court houses (to facilitate speedy bail payments)
(3) all police stations (to facilitate midnight bail payments)
(4) Ngong race course, casino’s and other gambling spots
(5) at ‘safe’ sports event venues e.g. Safari Sevens grounds (but not soccer stadiums)

simple technology
Standard Chartered Bank is renowned for its investment in technology to improve customer service – e.g. they were early pioneers of ATM’s and are still the only bank at whose ATM’s you can pay your electricity bill. But there’s one simple machine they need to re-adopt – cash counting machines.

I spent half hour while an adequately staffed group of hard-working tellers took an inordinately long time to count out wads of cash, unwrapping and counting out with their fingers, dozens of thousand-shilling notes at a time – one lady even counted about a million shillings, by my estimate.

It’s the of the month for most companies (who close for a two week x-mas break) and many customers were withdrawing huge amounts of cash (that probably exceed ATM daily limits). A Cash counter is old fashioned and costs about 100,000 shillings but the savings they generate are so much more to the other customers who are waiting for their turn. When used by bank tellers, they are able to serve customers at a much faster pace. Maybe there are high incidents of fraud that some banks have ordered their tellers to thumb and count each note by hand, but the use of cash counters would have saved so much time wasted at the Bank this morning.