Mobile money transactions grow a record 14.2pc in January

Telcos set a new record on facilitating money transactions where users transferred Sh368 billion mainly for payment of school fees, retail purchases and sending money across the country last January.

Statistics released by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) show this was 14.2 percent higher than the Sh322 billion recorded in January, 2018 when Kenya was returning to normalcy after a prolonged 2017 electioneering period. The growth was also powered by a seven-percent rise in paypoint agents from 188,029 registered in January, 2018 to 201,336 paypoint agents under the franchising models which are strewn across the country.

Telcos, Safaricom #ticker:SCOM , Airtel and Telkom as well as Equity Bank’s Equitel and Mobile Pay have contributed to immensely to higher use of mobile money services, via radio and TV campaigns as well as roadshows with several firms inking partnership deals with merchants allowing use of their platforms for payments of goods and services.

According to the Communication’s Authority of Kenya latest statistics, Safaricom’s M-Pesa commands a comfortable lead at 80.8 percent, Airtel at 11.9 percent, Equitel at 6.6 percent, T-cash at 0.4 percent and Mobi Pay at 0.3 percent.

Kenya’s growing fondness of cashless transactions on their mobile phone pay platforms has attracted banks, saccos, schools, government and private sector players to jumped in via paybill numbers to facilitate direct payments.

This has helped retail outlets reduce costs on hiring security to transfer money from their outlets to banks. It has also helped to improve security for Kenyans as most travel ‘light’ with money loaded into their mobile wallets rather than carrying cash.