CRDB Bank is in final preparations
for forming a microfinance bank which is planned to start operations in
July this year if everything goes on well.
The bank said its subsidiary CRDB
Microfinance Service would be turned into a full fledge microfinance
bank after showing signs of becoming stand alone bank. The microfinance,
which entered in a partnership with 482 SACCOs, has dished out 251bn/-
loans to these groups by the end of last year.
CRDB Managing Director, Dr Charles Kimei
said the idea behind was to bring closer and
better services to the
micro-lenders. “Currently, the microfinance subsidiary has 75 service
outlets across the country.
The units are enough to act as
branches,” Dr Kimei said when launching events to mark the 20th
Anniversary of the bank. The celebration dubbed 20 years of growth and
transforming people lives will include the setting of CRDB Microfinance
Bank in July.
“The main goal was to build a strong and
a leading bank in the country that will deliver banking services, of
international standard, close to the ‘wananchi’,” Dr Kimei said.
The microfinance bank will continue to
serve its traditional clients such as SACCOS, VICOBA in agriculture and
small scale businesspeople, while venturing out for new customers such
as individual SMEs.
“The microfinance unit has already
started to lend out to individual SMEs, but that will be the way
forward,” Dr Kimei said. Coming July, CRDB will be the first large
commercial bank to establish a full-fledged microfinance bank.
The banks boast for its innovative
alternative banking products including letting customers to access their
accounts using mobile phones, internet banking and mobile branches—full
equipped with ATMs.
The Simbanking has clients base of one
million, but fully registered are 500,000 customers, while Fahari Huduma
has 1,769 agents. “By the end of this year the bank ATM’s are expected
to reach 500 (from current 461),” Dr Kimei said.
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