Absa Bank Kenya Plc. has marked its first anniversary in the Kenyan market, with a commitment to significantly invest in transforming the customer experience.
The bank announced plans to invest over KSh1.6 billion in technology to enhance service delivery. The bank plans to roll out 60 different technology projects as it targets to go branchless in the next decade. These include automation of loan top-up process, a first-in-the-market which will enable customers to apply and get top-ups on their existing loans within fifteen minutes.
In the next year, we will be unveiling close to 60 different technology projects, which seek to transform our customer experience. Some of these include the automation of our loan top-up process. This will be a first-in-the market move which will enable our customers to apply and get top-ups on their existing loans within fifteen minutes, and at the touch of a button. We will also be rolling out a fully-fledged online Business Banking platform in the coming weeks.
Absa Managing Director, Jeremy Awori
That aside, at a glance, we try to enumerate what Absa has achieved in the past year:
- Loan relief and restructures valued at over KSh62 billion. This is equivalent to a third of the lender’s credit portfolio, covering over 59,000 accounts. This was to help customers navigate through the effects of the pandemic.
- The bank offered specific capacity building programmes for SME customers, to equip them with the necessary skills to overcome the pandemic’s challenges.
- The bank introduced the first-in-market Absa vertical debit and credit cards and revamped its SME Wezesha Biashara proposition to play a bigger role in the SME sector. This proposition offers unsecured loans of up to KSh10 million, which is the highest in the market, as well as LPO financing and invoice discounting of up to KSh50 million.
- By proactively managing its business continuity processes, all the bank’s branches remained open and operational while digital platforms had a 99.8% uptime.
- The bank introduced a new account, dubbed Absa One; an all-in-one account with no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fees. This account offers unsecured loans of up to KSh6 million for individuals, KSh10 million for businesses, 0.5% cashback rewards on all ATM and debit card transactions and a multicurrency prepaid card with up to 8 major currencies.
The bank embarked on a brand transition 4 years ago, looking to fully transform the business into a truly customer-obsessed organisation. The transition has already seen it shed the Barclays tag in Kenya and 12 other markets in Africa. The process saw the lender incur a separation cost of KSh1.7 billion in Kenya.
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