Rural Mobile Banking

Following the realisation that most group members travelled long distances to access banking services -- because the idea of table banking is that they bring money to the table.

This has led us to start using mobile banking services provided by commercial banks to bring the same service to the village where most members are located. Ideally group members are then able to transact remotely using either their ATM cards or mobile phones. This substantially reduced the time and money spent travelling to the towns to withdraw or deposit money. 

SIT has been providing mobile banking clinics to the members of the table banking groups in Meru County for three years now. Airtel Kenya Networks Limited, Equity Bank, and the Kenya Commercial Banks (KCB) are its current principal partners. Plans are underway to introduce the service in Tharaka-Nithi County, where SIT is also mobilizing and training table banking groups.

SIT’S first year experience is that the project is feasible and doable; especially now that table banking groups have created a sizeable amount of wealth that requires proper management and security (More than KES 300 million was created by table bankers in Meru and Tharaka-Nithi Counties in 2019—and still growing). The project will go a long way to create the much-needed jobs to particularly idle youths in rural areas, thereby integrating technology toward poverty eradication.

The importance of technology in reducing poverty was established by research in 2005 by the London Business School which found that for every 10 mobile phones per 100 in a developing country, GDP increases by 0.5%.