subject: The Banking Experience In Kenya [print this page] The Banking Experience In Kenya The Banking Experience In Kenya
Anyone who has dealt with international banking institutions will agree that there is a huge difference between such firms and the local banking institutions. Although there has been a huge improvement from the days when the minimum balance for maintaining an account was more than double the monthly salary of many people, a lot still needs to be done. This should touch on different areas from the level of service, processing of loans and even educating the staff working for these institutions! Actually most don't even bank in the institution they are working for.
The staff issue can actually be annoying sometimes. Either they are not properly informed about all the services their banks offer or they are only not interested in earning a salary by the end of the month. This statement might appear too harsh but it's not bearing in mind the frustration one can go through trying to access service that would only take seconds with institutions elsewhere. Take for example ATM withdrawal. Anyone who has used this service before will find it easy with options for withdrawing specific amounts from Ksh1000 and an option for other amounts. However, there are was a time I asked one cashier in the banking hall how I could withdraw ksh500 and the response was appalling "I don't know! Maybe it doesn't dispense that amount"
Away from petty issues, the functionality of most of the banks websites is shocking. Take Equity bank Kenya for example they have a great looking website detailing their services. The site appears fully functional in almost every aspect, however, if you happen to have a query that you would like to be addressed by support staff, that's where problems start.
Instead of a standard Contact Us form like in most other websites, here you get an email address. When you send in your query through the email, you should not expect an automated reply that your issue has been received or whether it will be addressed or not so you just hope and wait. Actually you can wait up to two weeks before receiving a reply! I've experienced this twice, the first time I had an issue with wire transfer funds and the second time about their debit card and PayPal account. When I received the response in the first case, it was actually shocking. The respondent said that my mail was in the spam folder. So you wonder, why give clients an email address that leads to the spam folder? For the Debit card issue, no response has ever been forthcoming!
Still on card issues, some banks like Co-operative Bank Of Kenya can make feel like jumping off your skin. They have indicated on their ATMs that they accept MasterCard among others. So after receiving on from Payoneer, I was elated I could access my money easily. However, I just decided to get a confirmation from the staff whether it would work. The response was not good by any standards! "yeah it'll work, but if the machine retains it we'll destroy it!" I had to check whether this was a standard policy for all banks so I moved on to an international brand, Barclays Bank. Here the staff was actually shocked that someone would destroy the MasterCard just because the machine had retained it.
Have you ever tried to apply for a loan from any of these local banks? You might actually be shocked by some of their requirements. From Equity bank's perspective, applicants are classified into two; salaried and self employed. For the salaried applicants they require the pay slips for a few past months among other things. However, for the self employed have to show almost daily withdrawals and deposits for the past six months. A nice strategy to determine the liquidity of your business! but what happens if you are not fully employed and you don't transact money daily? Am talking about people like freelance designers, writers and such who only depend on the payments they receive periodically. The Response I got from the loan officers is that you need to formulate other' sources of cash so that you can meet their regular transaction requirements.
Finally, due to the stiff competition among Kenyan banks, you can now actually open an account from very noisy mobile promotion tents! the brainchild of KCB bank. Although money matters should be serious whereby you are given time to study all the terms and have all your questions answered, there is no time for such issues on these tents. It would actually be a waste of time to ask questions with the deafening noise! What's more once you have filled the forms, albeit from the top of somebody's back as no tables are offered, you will be required to pay Ksh100 for your account to be processed quickly but you are not given any proof of payment. So my question to you is, where will you lay your claim if the account is never processed? These are just a few issues that you should expect to face in case you are planning to visit one of the local banks.
