A local Kenyan bank – Equity Group, has partnered with UK’s VFX financial to unveil a service that will see users transfer money in multicurrency denomination from UK to Kenya in real-time. Equity Direct service will allow users based in the United Kingdom and corporate institutions send money to any account within the bank here in Kenya. With a competitive exchange rate, Equity Direct is said to offer a very affordable money transfer service across the regions, the service can be accessed online from the banks portal.
Users can send money to Kenya in major world currencies including USD, GBP and EUR. Priding of three major advantages compared to alternatives, the Equity Direct service is reasonably affordable, convenient as users can initiate transactions any time from their homes comfort or office online, and it’s in real time – meaning the recipient will access money instantly. It’ll only cost 4GBP for users to transfer USD 10,000 from the United Kingdom to Kenya.
Speaking during the launch, VFX’s CEO Nick England said they were delighted to deliver a convenient and transparent yet low cost remittance service that will result in more money arriving in Kenya from the UK. He further added the service had already experienced a high uptake during the pilot phase. UK residents were able to remit millions of shillings within the last three months of piloting. Therefore, they were positive to have unveiled what he termed as ‘what the market had been waiting for’ – a low cost remittance solution, he added.
Mr. England further said that VFX had ensured that Equity Direct solution was flexible enough to permit remittance of even lower than 10GBP. However, only UK residents can register to remit money to Kenya and not vice versa.
VFX will facilitate UK residents who wish to send money to Kenya but do not have an account with Equity.
The transaction fees will start from £1 with a maximum fee of £4, and there won’t be deductions or charges on arrival at the Equity bank. The costs and exchanges will be clearly indicated for customers to see prior to using the Equity Direct service, a level of transparency rarely seen in Money transfer solutions.