Kenyans move Ksh.17 billion daily on mobile money

This is according to new data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) covering mobile money transactions between January and November last year.

In contrast, only an average of Ksh.13.7 billion in mobile-money deals were made per day in the comparable period in 2020.

The 24.1 per cent jump in average daily mobile money transactions mirrors the continued growth of mobile money in the country with the option sticking to defy the end of free mobile money transfers of up to Ksh.1000 at the start of last year.

Across the 11 months Kenyans moved a total of Ksh.5.7 trillion via mobile money translating to mobile money transactions valued at Ksh.519.6 billion per month.

In comparison, mobile money deals between January and November 2020 stood at Ksh.4.6 trillion translating to a mean of Ksh.384 billion a month.

The difference shows a 35.3 per cent growth in the value of average mobile money transactions per month in the contrasting periods.

Mobile money transactions set a monthly historical record Ksh.618.1 billion in October 2021.

The CBK data measures mobile money transactions by way of total agent cash-in cash-out.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 set the mobile-money deals on a growth trajectory as the CBK encouraged the deployment of cashless transactions to control the spread of the pandemic.

CBK’s interventions included the waiver of fees charged on transfers of up to Ksh.1000 and a further lift to fees on bank to mobile-wallet transfers.

While the first of the pair of interventions has since lapsed, the growth of mobile money has remained on the rise, shrugging off absence of incentives.

At the end of November, total registered mobile money accounts stood at 67.2 million while the number of active mobile-money agents was at 299,053.

A total of 186 million individual mobile money transactions were recorded during the month.