On Wednesday, NIC Bank entered into an agency banking partnership agreement with Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (Postbank). This means that NIC Bank customers will be able to benefit from Postbank’s wider branch network of 97 as compared to NIC’s 20 branches. They will be able to make transactions such as depositing and withdrawing money, loan payments and utility payments through Postbank’s branches.
Agency banking is a recent trend that seeks to take banking services to Kenyans at the most basic level by providing banking services to the unbanked and under banked at a cheaper rate.
NIC Bank plans to join other banks that have set up similar agency banking arrangements. Last year Postbank signed a similar deal with KCB. KCB also has its own agency banking system that goes by the phrase KCB Mtaani, Co-op Bank has Co-op kwa Jirani while Equity Bank has Equity Agent. All these seek to reach out to the majority of Kenyans who are unbanked.