Mobile money transactions in Kenya hit Sh3 billion a day

Kenyans transacted Sh3billion through mobile money every day during the second quarter of the 2015-16 financial year.

This has pushed the value of the sector to new highs, according to statistics released by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The value of money transacted on M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money, Equitel and Mobikash in the second quarter of the 2015-16 financial year was Sh290 billion.

Leading mobile phone subscriber Safaricom took the lion’s share, with 92 per cent (Sh267 billion) of the value transacted through M-Pesa during the period under review.

In contrast, the country’s 42 commercial banks made a total of Sh139 billion in profit before tax in 2014, according to data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

Equity Bank’s subsidiary Finserve came second, with its money transfer service, Equitel, processing a total of Sh17.9 billion.

The value of transactions through Airtel Money and Mobikash was Sh4.3 billion and Sh1.1 billion, respectively. Orange Money trailed with Sh65 million in transactions.

Further, Safaricom and Airtel each grew their agent network by 5 per cent during the period under review to register a total of 96,155 and 10,534 agents, respectively.

The number of mobile phone subscribers, however, dipped slightly to 37.7 million from 37.8 million recorded in the last quarter.

CA attributed the drop to numerous raids on illegal SIM-Box operators in the city.

Equitel registered the highest growth in subscriber numbers, increasing its customers by 29 per cent to 1.4 million. Safaricom shed 2.7 per cent of its subscriber base, while Airtel and Telkom Kenya registered marginal growth of 0.3 per cent and 4.3 per cent, respectively.

Data subscriptions grew by 10.6 per cent to stand at 23.9 million.