As part of its long term virtual banking strategy, Barclays Bank of Kenya has unveiled Timiza offering, a phone-based virtual account that enables owners of M-SMEs to access banking services directly from their phones.

The proposition targets both the lender’s customers and non-customers on Safaricom’s network in need of quick access to cheap capital to fund their daily operations. The Timiza services will be accesses through a mobile application downloadable on Google Play and USSD code *848#. In regards to charges, Timiza imposes a one off processing fee of 5% and a monthly interest rate of 1.7%.

With a repayment period of up to 30 days, customers will access instant loans of up to KES150,000 based on their M-Pesa banking history. Customers will also be able to deposit funds into their Timiza account through MPESA, pay utility bills, send and receive money directly to other Timiza users.

Barclays Bank Managing Director Jeremy Awori said the launch of Timiza marks an important milestone in the lender’s wider virtual banking strategy which targets to recruit at least five million new customers in the next five years.

Commenting on the sidelines of the launch, Barclays Kenya Head of strategy Musyoka Muthui noted, “We see an inseparable convergence of banking and technology…Timiza today is 5 out of 100 steps to where we intend to go”