KENYA:Mobile payment for goods up 71 per cent

CYNTHIA ILAKO

More than half the money sent through mobile phones between April and June this year went to paying for goods and services, fresh official data have shown.

Statistics by the Communications Authority of Kenya indicate that Sh692.1 billion -57.68 per cent of the Sh1.2 trillion worth of 480.5 million mobile money transfers- were through commerce platforms, driven by the industry whose current mobile subscription hit 40 million during the period.

This was a 71.27 per cent increase from Sh404.1 billion transacted during the same period last year. Safaricom took the bulk of the share where M-Pesa accounted for 66.72 per cent of the mobile commerce transactions valued at Sh461.82 billion, the CA quarterly report showed. This was however a drop compared to the same period last year, when the giant telco controlled 79.96 per cent of commerce transactions valued at Sh323.18 billion. Equitel, the mobile money product from Equity Bank, came in second, accounting for 32.33 per cent of the total mobile commerce cash valued at Sh228.05 billion. This is a jump from 17.34 per cent market share the platform held the same period last year, valued at Sh70.09 billion.

Struggling Airtel came in a distant third with the firm’s share at 0.33 per cent of transactions valued at Sh2.28 billion. This was a drop compared to last year, when its mobile commerce transactions accounted for 2.69 per cent valued at Sh10.89 billion. Orange Money and Mobikash cumulatively processed transactions valued under Sh10 million. The regulator did not publish the value of transactions through MobilePay.

As at June 30, the total number of active mobile money subscriptions stood at 28.07 million while the number of agents was registered at 180,657. The CA data show that subscriptions grew 6.73 per cent from 26.3 million registered last year, while the number of agents grew 13.82 per cent from 158,727.

Users of the dominant M-Pesa rose by 32.13 per cent to 22.62 million subscribers from 17.12 million recorded last year. M-Pesa processed transactions valued at Sh903.64 billion in the three months ending June, about 75.3 per cent of the total value transacted. During the period, Airtel Money subscriptions more than halved, dropping 68.45 per cent to 1.53 million users from 4.85 million recorded last year. The platform processed 2.19 million transactions valued at Sh3.14 billion.

Equitel transactions were valued at Sh311.82 billion processed through its 1.86 million subscribers.

SOURCE:THE STAR