Equity has revamped its USSD service offering unified services across all mobile networks and an enhanced customer experience. Customers in Kenya can now easily access the USSD service by dialing (*247#) on Safaricom, Airtel, Telkom, and Equitel.
Some of the other new features on the platform include; access to instant loans that range between Sh100 and Sh3million and self-registration of both existing Equity and non-Equity customers on the service
The onset of Covid-19 saw many businesses and individuals adopt the use of technology to curb the challenges faced in delivering their services. As a result, most businesses opted for online retail
According to a McKinsey study, by 2025, half of Africa’s population will have access to the internet, and online shopping may account for $75 billion, or 10% of total retail sales. Innovative business models and better-optimized supply chains, including fulfillment, are projected to drive development in the face of infrastructural problems, tough operating environments for small firms, and a new crop of businesses.
During the release of the 2021 Q3 results, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO James Mwangi said that Covid-19 has acted as a tailwind to the adoption of digital banking making them transform into a Big Tech in the financial services sector.
“The Group is increasingly shifting from its legacy brick and mortar model of branches and ATMs to self-service model of client’s own electronic devices or third-party infrastructure as more customers opting for cashless transactions,” James Mwangi.
Advancements in technology continue to transform the banking sector and Equity has leveraged on this to give customers choice and freedom to access and operate their accounts.
This has progressively led to consumers preferring to carry out most of their transactions digitally as opposed to going to the branches.
According to the lender’s 2021 Q3 results, out of the 975.1 million transactions processed for the 9 months in the year, only 30.1 million transactions (3 percent) were handled by branches and ATMs with the digital bank handling and processing 945 million transactions(97 per cent) with the self-service customers’ own device mobile channel handling and processing 90 percent of digital transactions.
