Vodafone director of mobile money Michael Joseph. PHOTO | FILE
By LILIAN OCHIENG'
In Summary
M-Pesa has hit over 25 million active customers globally,
marking another year of accelerated growth for the innovative mobile
money transfer service.
The platform has experienced a surge in usage across Africa,
Asia and Europe, with active customers increasing by 27.1 per cent to
25.3 million in the year ended March 31, 2016.
British telecom firm Vodafone, which owns a 40 per cent stake at
Kenya's Safaricom, attributed the growth to new market launches in
Albania and Ghana.
The telco said that the growth was also supported by a network of more than 261,000 agents in 11 M-Pesa countries.
“Since 2007, M-Pesa has enhanced the lives and livelihoods of
people without bank accounts, giving them access to essential financial
services through their mobile phones,” Vodafone Group Director of Mobile
Money, Michael Joseph, said.
“I am delighted and proud that M-Pesa has reached the 25 million
active customers milestone. M-Pesa continues to expand, evolving beyond
traditional money transfers to encompass savings and loans, payment of
salaries and benefits, settlement of utility bills and school fees and
to enable vital health and agricultural solutions,” he added.
Vodafone's partnerships in its countries of operations have
enabled it to leverage the platform to make payments easier. For
instance, Ministry of Social Development in Lesotho pays welfare grants
using M-Pesa while Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture also pays fertiliser
subsidies using M-Pesa.
In India, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission uses M-Pesa to
enable financial inclusion for women’s groups and the National Rural
Health Mission is using the service to disburse pre-natal health
benefits.
Meanwhile, in Mozambique, some development agencies use the
platform to pay employee salaries and allowances, water, electricity and
pay television companies in the country collect payments via M-Pesa
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