Wednesday, September 29, 2021

Active mobile-money accounts hit 34.7 million

 

By For Citizen Digita

The number of active mobile-money accounts in the country has now reached 34.7 per cent according to new data from the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA).

The data covering the quarter ended in June 2021 shows the number of active mobile money subscriptions rose by 4.7 per cent from 33.1 million at the end of March.

This means that more and more Kenyans are actively using mobile money services with telecom operators measuring activity by usage of the service per month.

The CA report has attributed the steady rise in mobile-money usage to the increased uptake of digital payments by customers in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19.

At the same time, the continued elevation of mobile money services is against the end of a waiver by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) which had allowed for free cash transfers among customers for amounts not exceeding Ksh.1000.

The continued rise of the service after the end of waiver shows increased preference for mobile-money services by Kenyans irrespective of the costs involved.

During the quarter, the value of person to person (P2P) transfers was up by 4.1 per cent at Ksh.1.01 trillion from Ksh.971 billion in the preceding quarter.

This translates to transaction equal to Ksh.11.1 billion daily.

Meanwhile, the value of customer to business (C2B) transfers eased by 8.8 per cent to Ksh.988 billion but business to customer (B2C) transfers were up 8.6 per cent at Ksh.721.9 billion.

Business to business (B2B) transfers followed a similar trajectory by falling 3.7 per cent to Ksh.1.7 trillion.

Moreover, the value of deposits held in mobile money accounts tumbled by 16.1 per cent to Ksh.1.018 trillion from Ksh.1.213 trillion previously.

The data from the CA is closely collaborated by that of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) which showed the value of mobile money transactions at Ksh.532.63 billion in June.

This from a total of 175.83 million individual transaction during the month.

The number of mobile money agents meanwhile totaled to 301,457 in June from 282,929 in December according to the CBK data.

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