Business
Kenya: Mobile Money growth continues – supercedes debit cards transactions
(Business Daily Africa) – Four in five new cell phone subscribers in Kenya are signing up for money transfer services, the latest industry data shows.
The new statistics indicate that the handset has become a key tool for financial inclusion.
The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) attributed the preference for mobile money transfer platforms to the ease of enlisting for the service.
“Continued growth is an indication of subscribers’ preference for mobile money transfer, which could be attributed to accessibility and affordability even to low-income earners,” CCK said in an industry report for the third quarter of last year.
The data released on Friday shows that 83.9 percent of the customers who signed up for mobile phone services between July and September last year also signed up for money transfer services.
There were 1.02 million new sign-ups for money services out of a total of 1.2 million new subscriptions in the third quarter of 2011.
By the end of September, 26.5 million customers had mobile phones out of which 18.4 million, or 69.5 percent, were using mobile money.
Deposits made through phone services grew from Sh48 billion (US$552 million) between April and June last year to Sh56 billion (US$644 million), representing an increase of 5.9 percent.
Compared to the previous year’s third quarter, the amount that customers deposited grew by 58.6 percent, indicating that the uptake of the money services by consumers had gathered pace between September 2010 and June 2011.
