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Equitel's transactions pass Sh500bn on higher values

equity

Equity chief executive officer James Mwangi. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The volume of funds transacted on Equity Bank’s #ticker:EQTY mobile money platform Equitel rose past the half a trillion shilling mark last year as users moved higher values on the platform.

The bank says that in 2018, Equitel transacted Sh572 billion, an increase of 19 percent on the Sh480.3 billion that was transacted in 2017.

This increase came even as the number of transactions grew by just 0.3 percent from 251.6 million to 260.3 million.

The platform has been competing against Safaricom’s #ticker:SCOM Mpesa in both the person-to-person money transfer and e-commerce.

“Equitel is the one propelling the digital payments for the bank. People are trusting the mobile platform for higher value transactions,” said Equity chief executive officer James Mwangi in an investor briefing on Tuesday. Internet-based corporate liquidity and cash management system EazzyBizz moved Sh273.8 billion last year, doubling its volumes from the Sh139.9 billion that was transacted in 2017. The number of transactions on the platform rose from 800 million in 2017 to 1.8 million last year.

EazzyApp

The biggest growth in terms of number of transactions was however on the payments app known as EazzyApp, where users recorded 260.3 million transactions compared to 94.8 million in 2017. The value of these transactions rose by 71 percent to Sh133.8 million, the bank said.

Central Bank data shows that in 2018, mobile money payments rose by 10 per cent or Sh346 billion to Sh3.98 trillion.

Overall, the growth in the use of mobile and digital platforms outpaced the growth of agency and merchant payments during the year. Agency banking recorded the highest volumes of all the alternative banking channels at Sh703.7 million, which was an increase by a quarter compared to the Sh564.2 billion Equity agents handles in 2017.

The number of transactions done by agents rose by 13 percent to 79.5 million. Merchant payments were up by 37 percent to Sh95 billion, with the number of transactions rising by 39 percent to 17.5 million.