Kenya: Mobile Cash Deals Reach Sh102 Billion in 3 Months

By Okuttah Mark

Payment of goods and service through the mobile money transfer platforms hit Sh102 billion in the three months to December 2015, demonstrating a higher appetite for the service as an alternative to hard cash and card payment.

According to the Communications Authority of Kenya, which released the data for the first time, the high value in transactions were driven by subscribers using the various money transfer platforms to pay for utilities and online government services.

Safaricom's Lipa na M-Pesa accounting for 94 per cent of the amount translating to Sh94 billion that its customers used to pay for goods and services.

Safaricom subscribers made a total of 35 billion transactions during the period while the value of the amount sent from person-to-person hit Sh124 billion.

Airtel's total value for paying goods and services amounted to Sh2.3 billion while the number of transaction made during the period totalled to 2.3 billion. The value of cash sent across Airtel money subscribers was Sh4.2 billion.

Equity's finserve, the new kid on the block surpassed Telkom's Kenya Orange money, with its subscribers using Sh3.9 billion to pay for goods and services compared to Orange Money which managed Sh1.1 billion.

Person-to-person

Finserve's value of person-to-person hit Sh14 billion compared to Orange's Sh1.3 billion.

"During the quarter under review, mobile money services remained key in providing safe, secure and cheap financial services in areas with no access to formal banking systems," the CA report noted, adding that "Kenyans were able to pay for utilities, online government services and buy goods and services using their mobile."

In general the volume of transactions (deposits and withdrawals) on this platform was registered at 122.3 million with Sh290.6 billion transferred among users during the period.

Mobile commerce recorded a total of 54.3 million transactions with Sh102. 4 billion used to pay for goods and services. The person-to-person transfers stood at Sh139.7 billion at the end of the quarter under review.

Growth in mobile money volumes comes at a time when all service providers are battling each other for a piece of the lucrative retail payments market by signing up merchants such as utilities, supermarkets, fuel stations and hotels to accept mobile cash.

These platforms include Safaricom's Lipa Na M-Pesa, Lipa Sasa Na MobiKash; Airtel Money's buy goods module while Tangaza Pesa is currently piloting MyDuka.

SOURCE:DAILYNATION