1 - Equity Bank has abt 4.5 million customers.   <br />2 - Lets wager that abt 70-80% are Safaricom subscribers...(3.15 - 3.6 million) and possibly 80% of those use M-Pesa (wild guess)<br />3 - A Study conducted in late 2009 (http://technology.cgap.org/2009/09/08/understanding-what-drives-profits-for-agents-m-pesa/) examined the factors that make an M-Pesa agent make a profit...as well as the challenges faced by such agents (which would most times lead them to say &quot;hakuna float&quot;).   <br />4 - As M-Pesa agents have become more pervasive, their profit margins have become thinner owing to competition (incl ATMs, super markets, etc).   This is part of the premise of M-Kesho - to allow such agents to make revenue from additional services like insurance...<br />5 - M-Kesho essentially removes the need to have CASH transactions - either sending or receiving.   However, to the operator the transaction fee still accrues, and to the bank, the deposits remain somewhat stable.   If anything, for corporate users of M-Pesa (KQ, KPLC, etc) they can know have their accounts credited directly - no need to use an M-Pesa agent to load cash onto phone and then pay KPLC, Kenya Airways, etc.    <br />6 - Thinking of the three or so million Equity Bank Customers who are M-Pesa users....will they EVER need to use an M-Pesa agent?  before the routine to send cash was ...a) draw cash from ATM/Branch b)go to M-Pesa Agent c) send money - and vice versa to receive (go to mpesa agent, get cash, spend/deposit cash) - ergo M-Pesa agent has a role.  Of course I admit, such account holders can still withdraw from their accounts using M-Kesho and get cash from an M-Pesa Agent (but I think this would be really really rare).   <br /><br />Will M-Kesho see some rationalisation in the number and size(type) of agents?   Admittedly some of the more established agents can evolve into FOSAs for Equity (and other banks), but I think at the grassroots there might be a negative impact.<br /><br />My two cents...<br /><br />Francis