I have been a Absa Bank client for the best part of thirty years. I am therefor exposed to their approach to mobile banking as a client more so than others. In the past, I have been direct in my comments of them, but it is all meant in good spirit. (Read here, here and here).It is common knowledge that mPesa recently launched their mobile banking solution in South Africa. Other players in the market are responding to this initiative with their own offerings and others are likely to respond later. For instance, one of the larger banks were quick to announce their own mobile money remittance product. (Read here). As a matter of fact, FNB beat mPesa in announcing this a week before the mPesa launch.
Absa bank responded with a marketing exercise of note. It is called Kweeka. (Read here). As soon as I became aware of this new "product" I started analysing it to understand the features and benefits. The more I read, the more I got confused. This is not a product, this is a collection of everything that Absa conjured up during the past three years, neatly packaged with a new slogan: "You can do it Kweeka!". It almost feel like meeting an old friend with a new funny hairstyle. You think you know him, but something is not right... you feel like laughing, but nothing is funny.