Kenyans transact Sh13 billion a day through mobile phones

Kenyans transact Sh13 billion a day through mobile phones

Kenyans transacted Sh1.2 trillion on their mobile phones between April and June this year.

This means they transacted Sh400 billion a month or Sh13 billion in a day.

This was an increase of 4.1 per cent from Sh1.17 trillion, which was the value of transactions between January and March 2017, according to the latest figures from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

Safaricom, the leading telecommunications operator with its ubiquitous mobile money transfer service M-Pesa, controls a huge chunk of the mobile money transactions with Sh903.6 billion in value of transactions.

A new entrant, Equity Bank’s subsidiary Finserve, was second with Sh311.8 billion having dislodged Airtel’s Airtel Money which managed Sh1.2 billion. Telkom, which recently rebranded, was on the fringes on mobile money, transacting Sh85.7 million in three months, a far-cry from what the other players managed.

“A total of 480.5 million transactions (withdrawals and deposits) valued at Sh1.2 trillion were made during the quarter. In addition, goods and services purchased over the mobile platform amounted to Sh692.1 billion which involved 316.5 million mobile commerce transactions. Person-to-person transfers were valued at Sh541.8 billion,” read part of the report which also put mobile money subscriptions at 28 million while the number of agents was 180,657.

The regulator attributed the positive growth in the mobile money transfer service to widespread use of mobile money solutions and adoption of the service among traditionally under served groups, especially the rural populations.

The growth was also due to the increasingly broad range of mobile money services, including insurance and loan products, said CA in its fourth quarter sector statistics report for the period between April and June 2017.

Besides Equitel, which has registered a significant growth since its entry into the market in 2015, Telkom and Airtel have been struggling. Airtel has unsuccessfully lobbied for Safaricom to be declared dominant by the regulator.

After the acquisition of France’s Orange stake in Kenya by Helios Investment Partners, the telecommunication firm is expected to start from scratch to build a new brand.

“We are looking at a new era where Telkom Kenya will no longer be looked at as a ‘sleeping giant’, as has been the case, and our users and the market are about to witness a new entity,” said Telkom Kenya’s  Chief Technology Officer John Bororot in a recent interview.

Shed subscribers

Helios bought the entire 70 per cent stake owned by Orange but ceded a 10 per cent stake to the National Treasury, retaining a 60 per cent shareholding while the Government saw its shareholding go up from 30 to 40 per cent.

Moreover, during this period, Safaricom tightened its hold on the market, increasing its mobile subscriptions to 72.6 per cent from 71.9 per cent recorded the previous quarter.

Airtel Kenya, the second largest telco, continued to shed subscribers, with its market share declining from 16.3 per cent in the previous quarter to 15.3 per cent.

Telkom Kenya, Mobile Pay Limited and Sema Mobile Services market shares remained unchanged over the quarter to stand at 7.2 per cent, 0.2 per cent and 0 per cent, respectively.