Kenyans living abroad are the largest senders of remittances to mobile money accounts, a new study shows.
WorldRemit,
an online remittance service that allows subscribers to send money
using computers, smartphones or tablets said: “Transfers to mobile money
accounts make up 93 per cent of WorldRemit transactions to Kenya now —
showing that Kenyans continue to be early adopters of innovative
technology, even when abroad.”
The revelation comes as
the pioneer mobile money service M-Pesa celebrates 10 years since
launch on March 6, 2007. “Kenya is famed for leading Africa’s digital
transformation, and today its Kenyans abroad who are at the forefront of
digitising international money transfers,’’ WorldRemit founder and CEO
Ismail Ahmed said.
“Most of our Kenyan customers use
our mobile app, demonstrating the strong demand for convenience when
sending to friends and family.”There are half a billion registered
mobile money users worldwide. Dr Ahmed said WorldRemit customers now
send more than 65,000 transfers to the country every month from the
WorldRemit app and website with over 90 per cent going to M-Pesa.
WorldRemit’s
service is available to senders in 50 countries and offers transfers to
more than 120 destinations across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and
the United States.
In January 2017, WorldRemit
customers transferred more than $140m (Sh14 billion at annualised rate)
to Kenya, making it one of the largest remittance companies serving the
Kenyan diaspora.
Top remittance-sending countries are
the UK, Australia, US, Germany, Canada and Nordic countries. Millions of
Kenyans live abroad, with large communities in North America, Europe
and Australia.
WorldRemit is now connected to over a
fifth of all mobile money accounts at 112 million around the world. Some
74 per cent of all international remittances to mobile money accounts
coming from money transfer operators are sent via WorldRemit.
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