Summary
- The value of monthly mobile money transactions crossed the Sh400 billion mark for the first time in July, official data shows.
- Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that the transactions that include cash transfers and payments for goods and services amounted to Sh450.98 billion, reflecting a 14.96 percent increase from Sh392.17 billion in June.
The value of monthly mobile money transactions crossed the Sh400 billion mark for the first time in July, official data shows.
Central
Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that the transactions that include cash
transfers and payments for goods and services amounted to Sh450.98
billion, reflecting a 14.96 percent increase from Sh392.17 billion in
June.
The mobile money volumes were rising
month-on-month since May, following a sharp dip to Sh308 billion in
April when Covid-19 restrictions were at their toughest, including a
movement ban into and out of Nairobi, Mombasa and Kwale, restricted
social gatherings and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Analysts
link the record high in the month to the increased volume of trade as
the economy continues to reopen following the easing of some
restrictions from May, while there has also been an increase in the use
of cashless payments in the country as people avoid handling cash to
prevent the spread of the respiratory virus.
Households
have also dug deeper into their cash savings held in banks following
widespread job losses and pay cuts. This has also coincided with the
removal of charges for bank-mobile wallet transfers, which has
encouraged more people to utilise mobile money instead of visiting ATMs
to withdraw cash.
“The economy has not been doing well and now a lot of people are
being forced to dig into their assets like fixed deposits to finance
day-to-day expenditure,” said Ken Gichinga, the chief economist at
Mentoria Economics.
Although July saw a record in value
of transactions, the year-to-date growth of mobile money volumes is
still lagging 2019’s growth.
In the first seven months
of the year, Kenyans have transacted a total of Sh2.595 trillion on
their mobiles, a 3.7 percent growth from last year’s Sh2.502 trillion
over a similar period.
The 2019 volumes represented an 11.1 percent increase compared to the corresponding period in 2018.
Mobile
money platforms were, in the formative years, used primarily for
person-to-person cash transfers but are now used for payment of services
and goods, a shift that has led to the growth in the amount of money
moved through the wallets.
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