Branch counters were the bottleneck. Members were queuing 40+ minutes to deposit or withdraw. The SACCO's mobile banking sat on a third-party gateway that was slow, expensive and opaque.
Members wanted M-Pesa-native interactions — STK push for deposits, instant withdrawal to mobile money, real-time balance and statements via USSD. The SACCO had no direct M-Pesa integration; every transaction routed through a reseller adding 3-5 seconds of latency and an unpredictable monthly bill.
Reseller layer removed. Direct integration to Safaricom Daraja APIs: STK push, C2B, B2C, paybill, account balance, transaction status. Mean transaction latency dropped from 6s to under 2s.
Built a reconciliation engine that matches Daraja confirmations against the SACCO's core in real time, flags breaks within 30 seconds, and queues automated remediation for the common 12 break patterns.
Native USSD menu (no internet required) and a Flutter mobile app — both built around the new direct rails. Sub-2s responsiveness, accessible on every smartphone in the country.
90-day campaign across branches, SMS, social and field officers — supported by Arton's CX team. Adoption hit 72% of active members within four months of launch.
"Our members were voting with their feet — they would rather queue at a Safaricom shop than at our branch. Arton helped us close that gap in nine months. Branch staff capacity that used to be spent on counter transactions is now spent on financial advice.
CEO, Large East African SACCOConfidential client
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