Mobile banking or M-banking is the use of the celular phones to conduct financial transactions. most people are familar with  and M-pesa bulk money transfer  and M-pesa usage.

M-Banking: Awareness Creation Required

Recent developments have seen banks like the Kenya Commercial ,Equity and Cooperative introduce mobile banking services.These range from services that allow deposit and withdrawal of cash amounts of a certain speficied value.

Whilst this may seem a good move by both the banks and the service providers, there is need for the public to be sensitized on this. This will help avoid scenarios that have resulted in the rise in cases of mobile fraud as been noted in the recent past.

there are of cases where M-Banking agents have been killed or robbed at gun point by persons posing as customers.There have also been instances where clients have been conned into transferring monies to people under false pretenses.

This scenario calls for  information creation strategies that would  help reduce these  situations.

M-Banking: Who should be empowered?

Both the Mobile banking agent and their customers should be enlightened on the following:

The agent:

• She or he should be trained on how to swiftly deliver banking services through mobile networks as per the procedures laid out.
  

  M-banking

• Should be sensitized on how to react when confronted with robbers who pause as clients. This will go a long way in reducing the number of deaths due to resistance from the mobile money transfer agents
• How to detect and  raise an alarm in case of any suspicious customers

The customers:

• Should be sensitized on how to choose wisely between banking services to be executed within a banking hall and those that can be transacted via mobile money agent.
• How to enhance their own safety by choosing appropriate time of the day and locations to carry out their mobile transactions

With the above sensitization’s executed, I do believe that there will be a reduction in the number of mobile frauds as is the case.

The Future of M-Banking

M-Banking is here to stay given the amount of online transactions people are engaging in due to:

• Convenience
• Reduction in access costs

It is therefore paramount for banks in Kenya to continuously device strategies that would enable majority of those already engaged in use of internet for their financial transactions to benefit immensely.

Some of these strategies can still ride on the existing mobile platforms that are commonly used by the public to help reduce on the costs.

As we move closer to Vision 2015,we as a country need to embrace mobile and M-banking as a means of promoting economic empowerment.