Celebrating the launch of Absa Kenya’s new ticker on the Nairobi Stock Exchange on Wednesday – (from left): Peter Matlare, Daniel Mminele, Absa Bank Kenya chair Charles Muchene, and Jeremy Awori. Image: Supplied Timiza, Absa Kenya’s virtual banking platform, will be rolled out to other African countries after having a successful run since its launch in 2018.
The Absa Group has declared its ambition to grow its footprint and take advantage of the opportunities on the continent, as part of its new strategy prompted by Barclays Bank plc’s move to reduce its 63% stake in its Africa operations to 15%.
The past two weeks have seen Absa finalise one of the key milestones in the transition – unveiling its newly rebranded (former Barclays) subsidiaries in seven African countries in a series of events and celebrations across the continent.
The last of the celebrations took place in Nairobi in Kenya on Wednesday. It saw the 100-year-old Barclays blue brand making way for Absa’s red, and included the launch of the bank’s new stock symbol on the Nairobi Stock Exchange.
Timiza
Timiza is a “fully fledged” virtual banking platform that offers various services such as 30-day micro loans, insurance and savings, and works as a bank account. Absa has partnered with Safaricom’s mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, using the platform’s transaction data to determine the loan a customer qualifies for.
Read: Absa signs $497m deal to boost lending in Africa
“It is run completely apart from our bank,” said Jeremy Awori, Absa Kenya MD.
Awori explained that the app is largely targeted at sole proprietor “hustler” entrepreneurs because they have high-velocity payments and transactions. In the two years since it was launched, Timiza has gone from processing 5 000 loans a month to 5 000 loans a day. It has just under five million users. “We have built and developed the app in Kenya with a local provider [and] due to that success and experience, we are looking at rolling it out to other markets,” said Awori.
In 2019 Kenya was rated the second leading innovation hub in sub-Saharan Africa by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. The country, with three million salaried people versus over ten million entrepreneurs, has democratised access to financial services through fintech.
Today, market leader M-Pesa processes half of Kenya’s GDP through the mobile money transactions made by its over 20 million active users. The focus on being digitally led for banks has been […]
