According to the the latest data from the Central Bank of Kenya, Bank agents across the country conducted about 80 million transactions valued at Ksh. 442.2 billion in 2015. This was an improvement of 13% compared to the previous year’s Ksh. 345.7 Billion (USD 3.8 billion).
The growth in value was driven by transactions relating to transfer of funds, payments of bills, cash withdrawals and cash deposits while the 37% increase in the number of transactions was largely attributable to increases in transactions relating to transfer of funds, account balances enquiries, mini statements requests and cash deposits, said the Central Bank.
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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% of the agents, that is Equity Bank with 16,734 agents, Kenya Commercial Bank with 11,948 and Co-operative Bank with 7,956.
“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.” CBK
