Kenya: Mobile payments grow 10.5% in first 9 months

Telecom Paper | Kenyan mobile cash transactions rose by Ksh307.16 billion (US$3.02 billion) in the 9 months ended September, largely driven by growth in e-commerce, reports Business Daily. Mobile payments increased at the highest rate in 3 years, by 10.48 percent between January and September, to nearly Ksh3.24 trillion (US$31.07 billion) from Ksh2.93 trillion (US$28.10 billion) a year ago.

This puts average daily mobile transactions at Ksh11.86 billion (US$116 million), largely pay bill and till numbers. This was Ksh1.13 billion (US$11.1 million) or 10.53 percent more than Ksh10.73 billion (US$10.5 million) in the same period of 2018.

Stephen Nduati, who headed the national payments system at the Central Bank of Kenya, for more than a decade and now works as an independent consultant on mobile money regulation, said the efficiency of mobile money platforms continue to drive growth in transactions.

In the formative years, mobile money platforms were largely used for person-to-person (P2P) cash transfers, but now they are increasingly being used for business deals such as the purchase of goods and services, as well as processing instant, short-term loans.