Transactions Conducted Trough Bank Agents in 2015 at 80 Million

Bank agents across the country conducted almost 80 million transactions that were valued to Sh.442.2 billion in 2015.

This is according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) where it stated that to be an improvement by 13 percent as compared to the previous years where the transactions added to Sh.345.7 billion.

The growth in value is said to have been driven by transactions relating to transfer of funds, payments of bills, cash withdrawals and cash deposits. On the other hand, 37 percent increase in the number of transactions is said to largely been attributable to increases in transactions relating to transfer of funds, account balances enquiries, mini statements requests and cash deposits.

According to CBK, as at December 2015, there were around 41,756 17 bank agents across the country, with commercial banks contracting 40,592 and 3 micro-finance banks contracting 1,154 agents.

This represented an increase of about 13.25 compared to 35,847 agents recorded in December 2014. CBK attributes this to increased confidence and acceptability of the agency banking model as an efficient and effective delivery channel.

Three local banks with the largest physical network controlled over 90 percent of the agents, that is Equity Bank that has 16,734 agents, Kenya Commercial Bank with 11,948 and Co-operative Bank with 7,956.

Central Bank of Kenya reiterated that the bank agents are normally associated with the nearby bank branch with their liquidity being managed by the bank branch. This explains why the banks with the largest number of physical branch presence have also led in the agency banking expansion.