Nearly 70% of the bank card base in Kenya has been converted to chip and pin technology and certified as EMV compliant, according to the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA).
KBA expect the remaining cards to be replaced by end of May this year.
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KBA in a statement said that it will also conduct the ATM and Card Safety Awareness Month campaign during the month of May, advising bank customers to exchange their magnetic stripe cards with the new EMV compliant cards.
From a cost perspective, EMV certification has varied between $6000 and $10,000 per institution, while the system upgrades were much higher, though they depend on the vendor.
A number of banks have had to outsource their cards systems to third party processors due to the cost implications, while others had to procure completely new card management systems.
The new chip and pin cards are also more expensive than the old magnetic strip cards with costs ranging between $1.80 and $3.20 to replace each card.
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By GlobalDataFollowing end of 31 May 2014 deadline for EMV migration, the banks will have to compensate fraud involving non-EMV compliant cards.
