Guaranty Trust Bank plc officially launches operations in East Africa through acquisition.

Guaranty Trust Bank plc, a foremost African financial institution with vast business outlays spanning Anglophone West Africa and the United Kingdom, has officially launched banking operations in Kenya , Rwanda and Uganda signifying East Africa market

Segun Agbaje  CEO & MD GT Bank Plc flanked by (right) Sonola Kunle,
Managing Director GT Bank East Africa  and board members 

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The bank, which is listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange (1996), London Stock Exchange (2007) and the Deutsche Borse (2007) and recognized as the biggest bank in Nigeria (by market capitalization), has held two colorful events in Nairobi hotels to unveil the Guaranty Trust Bank brand to media and customers, marking a successful entry of the universal banker into East Africa.

Kenya is effectively the 7^th country in the world to welcome the brand with similar launches expected in Uganda and Rwanda.

Commenting on the acquisition in Nairobi, CEO and Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. Mr.Segun Agbaje said: “The acquisition of Fina Bank operations in the region makes “strategic sense” for both customers and shareholders. Fina Bank has over the years built an enviable banking institution in East Africa; our combined strengths will help us build an attractive portfolio of leading products, services and marketing capabilities. We can now deepen existing and future customer relationships with differentiated capabilities to exceed customer expectations and grow market share.”He added that the merger would provide Guaranty Trust Bank with an attractive foothold in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

Guaranty Trust Bank secured required regulatory approvals from Nigeria and the three East African countries – Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda to conclude the acquisition of a 70% stake in Fina Bank Group at a  total cash consideration of over USD100 million (about Ksh 8.6Billion, effected through a combination of capital injection and acquisition of shares from Fina Bank shareholders.

Following the acquisition, Fina Bank cedes operations under its own brand with all its branches re-branding to Guaranty Trust Bank.  New entities in each of these countries will be known as Guaranty Trust Bank Kenya, Guaranty Trust Bank Rwanda and Guaranty Trust Bank Uganda, respectively.

Headquartered in Victoria Island-Lagos, Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank plc has a vast business outlay spanning Africa and the United Kingdom and employs over 12,000 personnel in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom.The Bank has evolved over the past two decades to become one of Africa’s leading banks with a unique reputation for innovation, excellent customer service, and corporate social responsibility as well as internationally accepted corporate governance standards.

Agbaje added: “Over the next few months we will be integrating Fina Bank Group into the Guaranty Trust Bank Group.  We assure you that this will not affect our operations or the level of service delivery for existing customers because we intend to keep respective operations in each of these countries both local and international.”

Rebrand of what used to be Fina Head Office, Kimathi street - Nairobi

Founder and current Chairman of Fina Bank Group; Mr. Dhanu Chandaria said: “We are delighted to partner with an extremely successful African bank, and with whom we share a common philosophy on integrity, governance and transparency.  It is indeed an honour for me to have been approached for a partnership with Guaranty Trust Bank, whose high standards and capabilities we have been able to appreciate over the past 18 months.  We look forward to working together in continuing to build the bank, as part of the Guaranty Trust Bank Group, leveraging on our respective strengths and creating a winning combination for all our stakeholders in East Africa.”

Guaranty Trust Bank has a corporate banking bias and strong service culture that has enabled it record consistent year on year growth in clientele base and key financial indices since its inception in 1990.

Over the years, the Bank has been a recipient of numerous national and international accolades and commendations for exceptional service delivery, innovation, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and management quality. To mention few: Best Bank in the Nigeria Award by Euromoney, 2011Best Bank in Nigeria by EMEA Finance, 2013 African Bank of the Year award by the African Banker’s Magazine among others,

Family Bank’s PESAMOB Virtual Bank optimized for cashless payments in public transport

Family Bank CEO Mr Peter Munyiri (R) flanked by
the Bank's Chief Operations Officer Mr. Kereri Muya (L)

Local commercial banking services provider, Family Bank, has swiftly moved to optimize its PESAMOB virtual bank account to act as a cashless payment option for the local public service vehicle operators.                                                                                                                                

The optimization of PESAMOB virtual account is consistent with the recently published National Transport and Safety Authority regulations.

The regulations published by Transport and Infrastructure Cabinet Secretary, Eng. Michael Kamau now compels all Public Service Vehicles (PSV) to operate a cashless fare payment system commencing 1^st July 2014 this year. As part of the regulations, PSV operators will also be required to ensure that passengers are issued with tickets or receipts for fare paid.

Speaking when he announced the optimization, Family Bank Managing Director Peter Munyiri disclosed that the Pesamob virtual bank product will now provide a convenient option for the rollout of the new cashless fare payment regulations.

“PESAMOB remains Kenya’s first Virtual bank account product and we have successfully managed to further enhance its application which will include cashless fare payment options,” Munyiri said.

And added: “The optimization involved the integration of a feature that allows matatu operators to open dedicated PESAMOB virtual accounts allowing passengers to simply make cash transfers at no charge.”

Launched last December, PESAMOB; a robust mobile phone based virtual bank, is geared at deepening financial services access by easing account opening and operation processes.

The virtual bank of a kind runs on Family Bank’s PesaPap! platform and targets to foster financial inclusivity to more than 3million Small and Medium traders alongside unbanked mobile subscribers.

During the launch last year, Munyiri confirmed that PESAMOB, Virtual Bank, is, designed to provide affordable differentiated services from conventional mobile banking solutions.

The new PESAMOB Virtual Bank, he disclosed will provide a full suite of banking services allowing its account holders to deposit cash, transfer, withdraw over ATM locations, and access micro loan facilities conveniently.

The launch of PESAMOB, Munyiri further acknowledged has been inspired by the growing consumer adoption of mobile phone based financial services. Industry statistics released earlier this year, he noted had confirmed that the number of active mobile phone financial services users (11.5 million) had more than doubled the number (5.4 million) of active bank account holders in the local banking sector.

In tandem with the growth, the use of mobile phone financial services, he pointed out had also doubled from 28% in 2009 to 62% in 2013, justifying the need for a fully-fledged virtual bank.

“At Family Bank, we are actively moving to change the local banking conventions as we know them by introducing such a groundbreaking banking solution as PESAMOB,” Munyiri said. And Added: “Besides boosting the national Financial inclusion goals, PESAMOB gives you the freedom to access loans, transact and save your cash without ever having to visit a physical banking hall.”

During the launch event presided over by Central Bank of Kenya Governor Prof Njuguna Ndung’u, the Family Bank boss explained that PESAMOB account holders will enjoy exclusive standard feature services such as MPESA money transfer, Airtime Purchase, Bill Payments, Balance Enquiry and provision of Mini Statements.

To enjoy the PESAMOB Virtual Bank Services, Munyiri explained that potential account holders will only need to Dial *325# from their mobile phones and follow simple prompts allowing them to activate their secure personal Virtual bank accounts.

According to the 2013 Financial Access (FinAccess) Surveys compiled by the Central Bank of Kenya and Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) Kenya, Kenya’s financial inclusion landscape has undergone considerable change in recent years.

The country’s financial inclusion landscape has significantly expanded with proportion of the adult population using different forms of formal financial services now standing at 66.7% in 2013 compared to 41.3% in 2009. The proportion of the adult population totally excluded from financial services has also declined to 25.4% in 2013 from 31.4% in 2009, easily vindicating the suitability of policy strategies and reforms by government as well as financial sector players’ initiatives and innovations such as Family Bank’s PESAPAP platform.

Paynet in merger with Pep Intermedius to expand the PesaPoint network

Joint venture between Paynet Group and Pep Intermedius will expand the PesaPoint network ahead of their new multi-institution agency model expected to be rolled out in partnership with mobile money providers and banks

Paynet, East Africa’s payment services provider for banks and mobile money companies has today announced a merger of its PesaPoint agent network with that of Pep Intermedius – to further grow the PesaPoint brand and expand its network.

Pep Intermedius, one of Kenya’s leading agent aggregators, has been running an exclusive chain of over 150 agent outlets offering mobile money and agency banking services – including
agents’ outlets at all the 40 Nakumatt stores countrywide.

The merger now places the PesaPoint network among the largest mobile money and agent banking networks in Kenya with more than 1500 agent outlets, positioning it for strong multi-institutions partnership with banks, financial service providers and mobile money providers.

Currently, PesaPoint runs a multi-stakeholder ATM network that serves about 13 million customers from 32 financial institutions and two mobile money networks (M-PESA and Airtel Money). It also has 1350 existing PesaPoint Agent locations which vend airtime and card
cash-out services.

Commenting on the merger, Bernard Matthewman, Paynet Group CEO said the merged agents network would take advantage of the huge growth and demand for financial services touch points and deliver to Kenyans ‘multiple products and services’ through a single agent network. “We have the technology to power innovations in POS, mobile and mPOS based agent services for banks, financial services providers and mobile money providers whilst Pep Intermedius manages one of the most advanced agency networks.

Our merger with them will bring the right combination of expertise to build and manage the most successful multi-stakeholder agent network for PesaPoint in the country. There is significant potential for this business to grow rapidly both in terms of the number of locations as well as the range of financial service providers it serves,” he said.

Frederik Eijkman, CEO of Pep Intermedius-on his part- said the merger would be exciting news for the industry given the record of innovation that the PesaPoint brand has with banks
and mobile money providers. “PesaPoint has achieved a number of ‘firsts’ in the market. This is the spirit we continue with in the agent network where we see more innovations coming to the market in partnership with mobile money providers and banks,” he said.

Mr Eijkman said the new network would launch in the near future a ‘pioneering range of new transactions services’:“Like a financial supermarket we will bring the broadest possible range of services to consumers including mobile money, agency banking, bill payment, airtime sales, ticketing, lotteries and even micro insurance,” he said.

“Multiple services through one channel will bring more value to the individual agent or shop owner and  it will provide a one-stop shop for customers who for example need to do a number of transactions such as access to cash from cards or mobile money and pay bills or buy airtime.”  Mr Eijkman continued. “With the merger, the distribution of financial services will further enhance economic and social development. Paynet and Pep together with their agents are proud to be contributing to the financial inclusion agenda.” 

Mr. Eijkman will head the new PesaPoint agent network. PesaPoint was the first independent ATM network in Kenya and connects customers to card services from various banks at low cost, provides card-less transactions for mobile money users, vends electronic airtime for all telecommunications networks and provides ATM bill payments and revenue collection service for multiple billers. More recently PesaPoint developed an agent network based initially on POS technology that runs in parallel with its pervasive ATM network.