Kenya: Card transactions end 5-year downward trend

The use of cards for payments rose by a marginal 1.8 per cent or 2.92 million in the first nine months of the year, reversing a five-year downward trend.

Central Bank of Kenya data shows the number of deals settled through cards rose to nearly 163.67 million in the January-September period, compared with 160.75 million in a similar period last year.

Card transactions have been falling since they touched a record high in 2013 as most consumers and traders increasingly adopt mobile money payments such as M-Pesa, which have evolved from person-to-person cash transfer services to e-commerce platforms.

Nearly 1.28 billion payment transactions were completed on mobile phones in the nine months, the CBK data shows, almost two and a half times more than 526.49 million in the same period in 2013.

“The old consumer was one that got cash from the ATM. What we are doing is to help consumers do all the transactions at their fingertips. The more we push, the more we will get to some point,” Victor Ndlovu, the country manager for US-owned payment cards giant, Visa, said in an interview in June. Mobile transactions continue to rule electronic payments partly helped by speed, efficiency and easier accessibility, with the number of agents nearly doubling to 203,359 in September 2018 from 113,130 five years earlier.

Payments worth Sh2.93 trillion were settled via mobile phones in the review period compared with Sh2.71 trillion the year before and more than double Sh1.37 trillion in 2013.