Authors: Celina Kawas and Harsha Thadhani Rodriguez, 2004

Equity Building Society (EBS) is a public company that offers a range of financial products similar to commercial banks in Kenya. It has identified its market niche as micro, small and medium enterprises, salaried persons and small-scale farmers who do not receive services from mainstream financial institutions. Until 2003 the remittance business in Kenya was mainly channeled through Western Union, which controlled approximately 60% of the market share. In September of that year, EBS entered into sub-agent agreement with Western Union increasing its market share to about 12% of the remittance market in Kenya or 20% of the local Western Union business.

In the Kenyan market, EBS is an example of a successful alliance between an MFI and a money transfer operator in offering remittance services. Through innovative marketing strategies, a wide offering of financial products, strong customer service and an average of a six month branch break-even period, EBS has been able to consistently increase its share of the remittance market in Kenya. In addition, EBS has been able to break even in a relatively short period due to the increase in volume which in turn took place because of the differentiated product and service offering. EBS is not driven by profit but is in fact looking to provide an additional service to its 295,687 savers.

WWB Innovation Briefs were a series of publications that highlighted the innovative approaches in microfinance products and services of Women’s World Banking’s network members and other industry players, updating the industry on current global innovations and microfinance practices. Our goal in disseminating the latest information and market insights was to make an impact on the industry by highlighting strategies that the members of the wider WWB network and the industry as a whole were developing to address the needs of low-income entrepreneurs.