In Kenya’s modern day banking, the most successful banks are those that are embracing the universal banking model. Universal banking combines the services of a commercial bank and an investment bank, providing all services from within one entity. The services can include deposit accounts, a variety of investment services, and may even provide insurance services.
The effectiveness of this model explains why Co-op Bank had its most successful year as a leading bank in Kenya in the year 2021. “A successful Universal Banking model and the implementation of Sales Force Effectiveness has seen the Group serve over 9 million Account holders across all sectors,” said Dr. Gideon Muriuki, the Co-operative Bank of Kenya’s chief executive officer.
“Through our multi-channel strategy, the Bank has successfully moved 94 per cent of all customer transactions to alternative delivery channels.”
These alternative channels include an expanded 24-hour contact centre, mobile banking, 561 ATMs, internet banking and over 26,000 Co-op Kwa Jirani agency banking terminals.
Co-op Bank posts best performance ever with Sh. 16bn net profit
According to Dr. Muriuki, key focus on digital banking, with the all-telco Mco-op Cash Mobile Wallet has continued to play a pivotal role in the growth of non-funded income with 3 million customers registered. This has also seen loans worth Sh. 71.2 billion disbursed year-to-date, averaging Sh. 6 billion per month.
“Over 144,000 customers have taken up the MSME packages that we rolled out in 2018, and 19,963 have been trained on business management skills. To date, we have disbursed Sh. 42.5 billion to MSMEs through our E-Credit solution,” said Dr. Muriuki. “Our unique model of retail banking services through Sacco FOSAs enabled us provide wholesale financial services to over 464 FOSA outlets.”
The success of this model also shows in the financials the bank realized in the full year ended December 2021. In that year, Co-op posted nearly Sh. 6 billion growth in net profit. This is after the bank realized a 59 per cent growth in its profit before tax to Sh. 22.6 billion from Sh. 14.4 billion. This saw the bank’s net profit grow from Sh. 10.8 billion to Sh. 16.5 billion in the year under review.
