Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) is tapping into Safaricom's M-Pesa service to enable people to open a bank account through their mobile phones.
The new system takes advantage of M-Pesa's massive customer-base to make it easy for Kenya's unbanked to open accounts without having to trek to branches.
To open a KCB M-Benki account, Kenyans visit the bill pay section of the M-Pesa menu, enter a designated pay bill number - 522522 - and their national ID number.
They can then make a deposit of as little 50 shillings and confirm it with their M-Pesa PIN. Once details are verified, they receive text messages with their new account numbers and log-in details.
Customers are then able to carry out a range of transactions - payments, withdrawals, deposits and fund transfers - from their handsets.
Joshua Oigara, CEO, KCB, says: "This mobile-banking platform will accelerate the reach to the unbanked in the country in a convenient, easy and simple manner without personally visiting a branch to open a bank account supporting our financial inclusion agenda."