Equity Bank launches thin SIM

Equity Bank has finally launched its Equitel thin SIM, which will offer voice, data and mobile money transfer services.

The new thin SIMs will enable Equity customers to make payments across all banking platforms thus increasing competition in the mobile banking industry.

Equitel will be operated through the bank’s subsidiary Fin Serve Africa Limited in partnership with Airtel.

The bank got the Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) license in August 2014 but was slowed down by court cases over user data safety.

In a May 2015 ruling, Justice Isaac Lenaola dismissed the court case saying that the security fears had been considered by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the service would be closely monitored during the one-year trial.

The bank’s chief executive, James Mwangi, said in an interview at the World Economic Forum on Africa that Equitel has 800,000 users already and aims to have 5 million SIM cards issued by the end of the year.

Equity targets to issue the thin SIMs to all its 10 million customers and expand to over 15 countries in Africa over the next ten years.

Equitel is expected to shake Safaricom’s M-Pesa dominance with seemingly lower mobile money transaction rates.