Business
Kenyan banks battling for a share of the mobile money market
Kenyan banks, increasingly embattled by mobile money providers, are looking to wrestle control from industry leader M-Pesa
By Seth Onyango
“If you can’t beat them, join them” is the approach traditional banks in Kenya are adopting as they seek a greater slice of the mobile money market dominated by Safaricom’s M-Pesa service.
Because of its widespread adoption by small businesses and individuals in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo), Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt, M-Pesa is a dominant player in the African mobile money market.
However, traditional banks in Kenya are now looking to take on the market leader by growing their own mobile money offerings—either by building their own platforms or by building on the back of existing platforms, including M-Pesa itself.
COVID-19 increased adoption of non-cash payments to banks
This comes as a market report shows that the COVID-19 pandemic had a marked impact on non-cash payments to banks, with many banks quickly improving their digital offerings to remain competitive.
“A massive 49 percent of African banks said that they had greatly increased the speed of implementation because of COVID-19,” the report reads in part.
