April 1st, 2012

In November 2009 the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the Financial Sector Deepening Trust Kenya (FSD Kenya) provided a total of USD 540,000 to Mobile Ventures Kenya Limited (MVK) to enable MVK to pilot an innovative savings product delivered through the mobile channel. The product is Jipange KuSave (meaning “plan or organise yourself to save”) or JKS.

This report provides a detailed review of JKS over 18 months from the inception of the project. It includes:

• an outline of the state of the industry for mobile banking in Kenya; a review of the motivations and expectation of the parties to the project;
• an overview of what has been delivered by the project; a description of the main changes to the product and operations over 18 months of operation; and a summary of how donor funds have been used; ƒ an analysis of the current and potential commercial viability of Jipange KuSave (JKS);
• a description of customers and customer perspectives of how JKS fits into the portfolio of financial services they use and customer case studies;
• a summary of lessons learned; evaluation of the hypothesis that financial services could be sold with little or no human contact; an analysis of other hypotheses, assumptions and identified risks and how these played out over the lifetime of the project; and an assessment of whether the project represented a good use of donor funding.

Citation

Coffey International. (2012). Using credit to grow savings: Results from a mobile pilot in Kenya. Nairobi, Kenya: FSD Kenya.

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