A battle for supremacy

New mobile products coming into the market promise to deepen financial inclusion even further. Equity Bank are introducing Equitel, its telecoms unit, that will allow customers to access credit loans, perform cross border money transfers and send and receive money from other commercial banks, reports Reuters.

Equity is one of the biggest banks in east Africa and since the soft launch of Equitel in October of last year, the service has attracted a millions subscribers. The bank aims to increase that figure to 5 million by year’s end.

“We are removing barriers of financial inclusion, we are targeting telecoms to compete on data, SMS, voice and all levels of money transfer,” James Mwangi, Equity Bank’s chief executive officer said at the product’s launch. Read more