Tag: Kenya

Interview to Ms Nyambura Koigi, Kenya Post Office Savings Bank [Postbank]

Located in Eastern Africa, the Republic of Kenya borders the Indian Ocean and lays between Tanzania and Somalia and Uganda on the western side and is home to 34 million people. WSBI member Kenya Post Office Savings Bank [Postbank] is active in the extension of access to professional financial services to the population at large. News & Views has asked Ms. Nyambura Koigi, Managing Director of Postbank, to present the activities and ambitions of her institution. As President of the WSBI Africa Regional Group, she also carries a message to other African WSBI Members.

Q: Ms. Koigi, the mission of Postbank is to create a savings culture amongst Kenyans. How does your institution achieve this goal?

A: The vision of Postbank Kenya is to be the “Bank of Choice” while the mission is to provide accessible and sustainable banking and other related financial services through innovative delivery systems to the benefit of customers and other stakeholders.

We endevour to attain this great mission of creating and stimulating a savings culture, through dissemination of information, through financial education and targeted communications. With targeted communication, I mean being present at trade fairs and exhibitions, at district development forums, but also giving presentations in schools and colleges and participating at radio programs.

A concrete example of a savings education initiative is the programme we developed with the fishing communities in the Lake Victoria region. We helped them see the importance of savings. Together we identified their saving needs and recommended to them the most appropriate products for their businesses.

Postbank has been instrumental in working with other strategic partners in the design of posters to give savings education in a simplified way. We also work with university students and youth groups to promote entrepreneurship and small businesses and teach them about savings. For example we have been sponsoring the SIFE Kenya initiative (Students in Free Enterprise) to nurture entrepreneurial skills and encourage savings culture among the youth. Through these initiatives, Postbank is making a difference in the society and community we operate in.