Thursday, February 10, 2011: Leading integrated communications firm Safaricom today signed a partnership deal with KCB Group aimed at easing access to business development loans by M-PESA agents.
Under the agreement, M-PESA agents will readily acquire bank overdrafts and loans from KCB for the purposes of business expansion and float availability at favourable rates.
The financial facility dubbed, M-PESA AGENT MKOPO na KCB, will be  available through various products that have been tailored to suit the needs of M-PESA Agents. These products include:
1. KCB M-PESA Account; A customised business account for the agents to manage their transactions both for their agency business and complementary businesses. This account is eligible for MPESA Agents only.
2. M-PESA Float Overdraft;  This is an overdraft to MPESA agents to enhance their working capital requirements.
3. M-PESA Agent Loans; A specially designed short term loan product to finance them with working capital for applicants who plan to expand their agency business or other business improvements.
The agents will be evaluated by KCB on basis of the strength of their business cash flows.   
“These overdrafts and loan facilities will support business expansion and ensure sufficient float availability given KCB’s strong financial muscle and wide branch network of 217 outlets spread across the East African region,” KCB Group Chief Executive Dr. Martin Oduor-Otieno said.
Last year, KCB raised Kshs 12.5 billion additional capital through a rights issue that has now given it extra capacity to provide significant financial support to its customers through loans and advances. 
Dr. Oduor-Otieno said the M-PESA AGENT MKOPO na KCB deal has immense capacity to grow and yield the right level of returns to investors adding that M-PESA agents and dealers will access loans from Kshs 2 million to Kshs 5 million with Safaricom holding collateral.
Speaking during event held at Safaricom House, Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore said the partnership was one among several initiatives the company has been undertaking in order to support its agents and economically empower them.
“To leverage and grow M-PESA, the business has actively been exploring innovative means to improve the efficiency of our partners in order to deliver a better experience for our customers. This partnership with KCB offers us a opportunity to reach all parts of the country given their branch footprint and offer these partners the financing they need to move to the next level,” said Mr. Collymore. 
M-PESA currently has over 22,000 agents spread across the country servicing over 13.2 million customers.

About KCB
KCB Group dates back to 1895 and is cross-listed in the stock exchanges of the region, namely; Nairobi Stock Exchange, Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, Uganda Securities Exchange and Rwanda Over the Counter Market.
It has the large asset base of KShs 244 billion and capital base of KShs 38 billion which makes KCB the single largest bank in this respect with unmatched capacity to meet customers’ large financing requirements.
The bank operates in five African countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Southern Sudan.

About  Safaricom’s M-PESA...
The M-PESA service, the first of its kind in the world, was launched in March 2007. As at 31st December, 2010, the service had over 13.5 million customers and over 22,000 Agent outlets countrywide. Over 400 organisations are now accepting Bill Payment via M-PESA.
The service does not require users to have a bank account; an important aspect in Kenya, where millions of people do not operate bank accounts. With M-PESA, account holders can buy electronic funds at an M-PESA agent and send the electronic value to any other mobile phone user in the country, who can then redeem it for conventional cash at any M-PESA agent.
M-PESA customers can hold up to KShs100,000 in their M-PESA account at any one time, and can do transactions of up to KShs140,000 in a day. Between KShs 50 and KShs70,000 can be deposited, sent or withdrawn per transaction.