BANKS STOP WHINING…INNOVATE

I remember when and why I opened my bank account. It was a very well worded treat from the accounts department. It had exactly five lines, but the last one was the one that impressed upon me.

It said ‘failure to do this will result to no salary’.
So I went to the bank. The experience was not good. Why the needed to know my father and mother has never *&^%$#@ to me and to many people such silly questions are still making it difficult to open a bank account.
Ok they have improved; they now hawk their products right on the streets.

Nairobi streets have become rather congested with MBA holders selling this and that of Bank A, B or C
Well they were napping as the mobile money transfer service took root.

Off course you cannot they still move huge amounts of money as compared to the mobile service: say 60 billion to just 500 million.
However it’s not about the amounts that is the question, its rather about how one acquires a bank account as compared to the two steps or so for opening a M-Pesa or Zap account.

So lets review this, while the Banks are still stuck to a rigid system that seems to turn away prospective clients, the mobile network are learning to appreciate the word simple……..make it simple and I will buy.

So to the banks may be you should consider using the mobile device as an avenue of opening an account since it appears that you still believe that a bank account in Kenya is a privilege.
To the Ministry of Education you seem to be turning a small issue into a mountain.

You just told us the other day that you have digitized all or most of the schools syllabi, so why can’t you see the connection between the mobile phone, Internet and E-Learning.

Most of us folks in Africa will get to the net through the use of a mobile phone and that can solve very many issues especially in infrastructure.
Dr. Bitange Ndemo is worried that we are not ready for the fiber optic cable? He has a point especially considering that only 2.5 million of Kenyans are surfing the net.

I think we will transfer our peculiar calling habits to the World Wide Web. It’s very interesting we take up ICT stuff so am not worried.

From bus fare to church contributions to bar bills now you can Zap or M-Pesa it. So banks and government innovate or we will innovate you.