M-Shwari unveils Sh50m promotion in fight for mobile loans market share

The product has faced stiff competition from rival products such as KCB M-Pesa and Equitel which are fast becoming popular.

Safaricom's Director of Consumer Business Sylvia Mulinge. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA  

In Summary

• The product has faced stiff competition from rival products such as KCB M-Pesa and Equitel which are fast becoming popular.

By LILIAN OCHIENG'
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Kenya’s first M-Pesa loan service M-Shwari has initiated a promotion aimed to drive uptake amidst a fierce battle for control of the mobile money credit sector.

The banking service, run by Safaricom and Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), will reward 4,800 winners with Sh50 million over the next 6 weeks.

Dubbed Stawisha Na M-Shwari, Safaricom says the promotion is aimed at boosting Kenya’s savings culture which stands between 12 per cent and 15 per cent of the country’s wealth.

“Deepening financial inclusion is a key agenda for us and we have continued to evolve M-PESA to drive this objective. The launch of M-Shwari three years ago was a key step in this direction. The challenge now is to keep the product growing to suit the needs of our customers,” said Sylvia Mulinge, Director of Consumer Business at Safaricom.

The product, which has disbursed loans amounting to Sh90 billion since its inception in 2012, has faced stiff competition from rival products such as KCB M-Pesa and Equitel, which are fast becoming popular.

KCB-M-Pesa launched in March last year and has so far disbursed Sh7.8 billion.

READ: KCB mobile banking loans hit Sh7.8bn

ALSO READ: KCB raises interest on M-Pesa loans

The lender's CEO Joshua Oigara recently said that the service has eased lending and borrowing by offering loans of between Sh50 and Sh1 million payable over a period of one to six months.

Equitel also hit the market last year and has so far disbursed Sh8.5 billion in loans with Equity Bank's James Mwangi saying that the bank receives 80,000 applications for lending on a daily basis.

“The aim of this promotion is to encourage more customers to save on M-Shwari and be rewarded for their financial prudence. The uptake of M-Shwari has so far been amazing but we still see a huge opportunity to bring on board more customers,” said Ms Mulinge.

Winners will walk away with a Sh5 million grand prize, some Sh1 million, for 50 weekly winners of Sh100,000 on M-Shwari deposits of Sh50 with no withdrawal during the week.

“M-Shwari customers stand at 14 million today. We are proud of our achievements so far and aim to maintain this growth trajectory through our strategic intent to provide simple, yet affordable financial services to millions of Kenyans,” said Jeremy Nguze, chief executive of CBA.

This is the second M-Shwari promotion since its launch in 2012.

The first promotion - dubbed Fanikisha Maisha na M-Shwari and held in 2014 - saw a 21 year old sugarcane cutter from Kakamega win the grand prize of Sh5 million