Equity’s mobile money arm registers twice as many customers as Orange

Corporate News

Equity Bank customers can access their accounts through mobile handsets and transfer money to people on other mobile cash platforms such as M-Pesa. PHOTO | FILE 

By MUGAMBI MUTEGI

In Summary

• Equity’s mobile virtual network operator Finserve Africa Limited had 394,606 subscribers as of December 2014 compared to 190,129 on Telkom’s Orange Money.

Equity Bank, the latest entrant in the mobile money industry, managed to register nearly 400,000 subscribers in the ...
first three months of operation surpassing one of the top three mobile operators.

Latest industry statistics shows that Equity’s mobile virtual network operator Finserve Africa Limited had 394,606 subscribers as of December 2014 compared to 190,129 on Telkom’s Orange Money.

Equity is now close to Tangaza (503,556 customers) but significantly behind Mobikash, Airtel Kenya and industry leader Safaricom who have 1.5 million, 3.2 million and 20.1 million mobile money users respectively.

“During the quarter under review (October to December), the number of mobile money subscriptions stood at 26 million down from 27.4 million recorded during the last quarter,” Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) says in its report. “Finserve, a Mobile Virtual Network Operator licensed in 2014 joined the market and recorded 394,606 subscriptions during the quarter under review.”

CA last year issued three MVNO licences to Finserve, Mobile Pay Limited –owned by Tangaza Money— and Zioncell Kenya. Equity’s venture into mobile money and telephony was viewed as a potential game-changer based on its planned lower pricing and the introduction of a special SIM card that would overlay on competitor cards.

The mobile money subscriber numbers are still low, considering that Equity was issuing its SIM cards for free to its existing 8.7 million customers beginning October.

Operating on prefix 0763 and Equitel as the brand name, the SIM cards are mobile banking and voice service enabled.

“During the period under review Finserve, a MVNO licensed in 2014, recorded on-net traffic of 1.6 million minutes during the quarter,” the CA data released last week shows.

Equity Bank customers can access their accounts through mobile handsets and transfer money to people on other mobile cash platforms such as M-Pesa.