The Role of Kenya Commercial Bank in Supporting Exporters of Horticultural Goods to Gain Competitive Advantage
Abstract
All commercial transactions such as private and governmental sales, investments, logistics, and
transportation, that take place between regions, countries and nations beyond their geographical
boundariescomprise what is referred to as International It also includes services such as
investments and monetary transactions. Export business is a function of international trade where
merchandise manufactured in one nation are dispatched to another country for future sale or
trade. Horticulture farming is the cultivation in large scale of vegetables, fruits and flowers for
export and local market.. According to Porter (1985), competitive advantage is the capability to
earn revenues on ventures steadily above the average for the industry. Kenya Commercial Bank
offers several services that favor horticulture farmers giving them competitive advantage. These
include branchless banking, which is the delivery of financial services outside conventional bank
branches where the customers do not have to walk in the bank to receive services. This study
sought to answer the question: What is the role of KCB in supporting Horticulture farmers gain
competitive advantage in Kenya? Data was collected using an interview guide that was
administered to top tier staff at the Kenya Commercial Bank Central region that comprises of the
former Central, Rift Valley and parts of the Eastern Provinces of Kenya. Data collected was
analyzed using a qualitative data checklist and for the quantitave data using frequencies, charts
and graphs. This study confirmed that KCB through its various initiatives in branchless banking
is playing a vital role in giving horticulturists competitive advantage over their rivals. KCB’s
branchless banking system is very appreciated by its clients since it offers a high level of
convenience. The younger clientele who are not averse to change and those that are fascinated by
the changes in the ICT world reported very high uptake levels of these innovations from KCB
with a majority of them showing very positive attitude towards branchless banking initiatives
with the end result being that many clients including horticulturists have taken up this products.
Client’s attitude towards any product directly affects the acceptability of the new innovation in
the market and thus with the clients of KCB largely exhibiting a positive attitude towards
branchless banking then it is safe to make the assumption that it has been greatly accepted by
clients and particularly horticulturists. This could be due to the efforts that have been put in place
by the product development teams to make branchless banking initiatives undertaken by KCB
very user friendly to all customers. The future of banking lies primarily in branchless banking.
This being said all efforts should be made to ensure enhanced security of the branchless banking
products to further assure clients of the security of their funds. It emerged from the study that
enhanced security features like biometric identification should be incorporated in design
particularly in regard to i-banking.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
Horticultural goodsRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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