Teaching Elephants To Tango: Working with Post Banks To Realise Their Full Potential

by Graham Wright, Nyambura Koigi and Alphonse Kihwele
Dec 1, 2006
1 min

MicroSave carried out an analysis on the Tanzania Postal Bank and the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank to explore the possibility of post offices’ offering microfinance services as a value addition to their poor clients.

MicroSave carried out a SWOT/ PEST Analysis on the Tanzania Postal Bank (TPB) and the Kenya Post Office Savings Bank (KPOSB) to explore the possibility of Post Offices offering microfinance services as a value added services to their poor clients. The Post banks’ existing large network of branches gives them indisputable comparative advantage and the potential for linking these to e-banking solutions offers a real possibility of bringing the financial services to the unbanked in poor countries. The publications explores ways by which post banks’ network can support the government and other institutions in making salary and pension payments to people living in remote areas who are otherwise un-served by commercial banks.

The document highlights the comparative advantage of post banks’ networks over shops, garages and bars which are used as E/M-Banking agents. For instance, in some countries, the central bank authorities do not permit such outlets to offer even basic withdrawal service. However, the post banks typically remain subject to restrictive policy environment such as labour laws that limit their ability to follow efficient human resource management and product development practices.

The paper goes ahead in making recommendation that in the future even commercial banks can foray into microfinance and even remittance services. A level playing field between the public and the private sector is called for to offer public choice to the consumers in financial services’ delivery.

Point-wise SWOT/PEST analysis conclusions can be read in this article.