Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has partnered with on-demand delivery app – Glovo to reward its customers with free two deliveries in the month of April. The partnership which comes during this difficult period when Kenyans have been advised to stay at home amidst the spread of corona virus that’s been recking havoc elsewhere will offer some sort of relief for those who want to buy something through Glovo.

The partnership between the two firms seeks to reward existing Standard Chartered clients who spend Ksh 2000 or more on the Glovo app with two free deliveries for the month of April. It’s a win win scenario that will see customers spend at least Ksh 2,000 and in return rewarded with the free deliveries.  

To add icing on the cake, the promo is not limited to food stuffs that are popular with Glovo but will include food items, groceries as well as over the counter pharmacy products. By engaging Glovo, Stanchart bank has devised one of the clever ways to assist customers exercise social distancing that’s key to preventing the spread of the virus.

While enabling online payment and delivery services, the alliance between the two firms will boost the government’s directive to reduce physical handling of cash and minimizing foot traffic in crowded areas such as malls and dining areas.

Speaking on the development, Standard chartered bank Head of Retail Banking for Kenya & East Africa Edith Chumba said the financial institution remained dedicated to the wellbeing of stakeholders during these uncertain times. She also added the institution was equipped to minimize any impact on their staff, services to customers.

In addition to providing a germ-free environment in the institution’s physical branches and offices, the head of Retail Banking for Kenya & East Africa added the bank’s digital platforms support non-face to face services and will ensure that customers can stay on top of their banking and have access to a variety of products and services.

Glovo general manager William Benthall praised the partnership acknowledging the advice given by Kenya’s cabinet secretary of Health who encouraged home delivery as a way for people to stay home and stay safe. He said the partnership with Standard Chartered would allow more people to access home delivery service and help them support the government minimize foot traffic and ensure social distancing.

Safaricom and Vodacom have announced completion of full acquisition of the M-PESA brand, product development and support services from Vodafone through a newly-created joint venture. Safaricom had shown interest to acquire the brand from Vodafone sometime during last year a measure that was seen to give the telecom giant an upper hand to innovate and introduce additional functionalities on the platform rather than having to go through Vodafone.  

The completion of this transaction comes a year later after it was first announced and is expected to boost MPESA’s growth in the continental Africa by providing both Safaricom and Vodacom full control of product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-PESA into new markets.

Speaking on the joint venture, Vodacom’s group CEO Shameel Joosub, said the acquisition presented a significant milestone for Vodacom as its expected to boost the firm’s financial services aspirations in Africa. He also added the move will allow Vodacom and Safaricom to drive the next generation of the M-PESA platform – an intelligent, cloud-based platform for the smartphone age. It will also help Vodacom promote greater financial inclusion and help bridge the digital divide within the communities in which it operates.

On its part, Safaricom’s outgoing CEO Michael Joseph, said the telco was excited to have the management, support and development of the M-PESA platform relocated to Kenya, where the journey to transform the world of mobile payments began 13 years ago. He also acknowledged the new venture would allow Safaricom to consolidate platform development as well as synchronize more closely product roadmaps, and improve operational capabilities into a single, fully converged Centre of Excellence.”

Vodafone on its part through group CEO’s message read by Nick highlighted how MPESA had been hugely successful by enabling millions of unbanked people in Africa to transfer money, pay bills and trade. The message also read how MPESA had benefited communities as well as create a multitude of small and micro-business ventures. Consequently, he acknowledged that, with rapid increase in smartphone penetration, evolution into financial services and the potential for geographical expansion, Vodafone believed the next step in M-PESA’s African growth will be more effectively overseen by Vodacom and Safaricom.” Currently, M-PESA prides to have the largest payments platform on the African continent with over 40 million users and processes running beyond a billion transactions every month. M-PESA is operational in Kenya, Tanzania, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Mozambique and Egypt. Currently around 25% of all M-PESA customers have access to a smartphone – a figure that is growing by 10% every year.

Coming as a relief to most Kenyans who have relied on mobile phone app loans that were due sometime this month, Members of the Digital Lenders Association (DLAK) have now agreed to waive the late repayment fees as part of steps taken to cushion customers who are already experiencing hard economic climate over the coronavirus pandemic.

Lenders from android applications such as Zenka, Pesa Flash, Flash Pesa, iPesa amongst others have been charging customers a percentage interest daily on loans that are due. This has been quite a hustle for most Kenyans with some seeing as much as Ksh1000 accrued from interest in just a period of one week.

It is however not clear if these lenders will allow customers to borrow again once they’ve cleared their previous loans. Customers on platforms such as Zenka have been met with ineligibility regret once they had cleared previous loans making it difficult to survive during this period. Others such as Tala are now subjecting customers to up to ten days to have their loan applications approved.

 Members of the digital lender’s association said the waiver was aimed at providing customers with a soft landing as slowdown in economy had affected their income.

“Customers are advised to seek more detailed information on the specific aspects of the waiver from their respective providers,” read the statement.

“The move will cushion the customers who are under distress, following the slowdown in the economy after disruptions to their day to day operations that could have had an effect on regular income flow.”

The digital lenders association further pledges support the directive issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s on the temporary suspension of listing with the Credit Reference Bureaus (CRB) of any person, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and corporate entities whose loan account falls overdue or is in arrears effective April 1, 2020.

The digital lenders association is composed of 12 founding members among them; Tala, Zenka Finance, Alternative Circle, Stawika Capital, MyCredit, Okolea, LPesa, Kopacent, Four Kings Investment T/A Sotiwa, Mobile Financial Solutions (MFS), Kuwazo Capital, and Finance Plan Ltd, Branch, Vaell, Roamtech solutions, Aspira and MicroMobile.