Mobile money cash transfer from customers to businesses have recorded the highest jump among all segments between April and June this year according to the latest data by the Communications Authority.
The fourth quarter statistics released Thursday shows that the value of customer-to-business cash transfers surged the highest at 43.8 percent to hit Kes 446.50 billion compared to Kes 310.48 billion registered during the previous quarter.
The jump is attributed to strict COVID-19 health measures imposed by the government during the period which meant many payments had to be done using mobile money as e-commerce service picked after the outbreak of the pandemic in March.
“The values transacted during the period increased significantly from the previous quarter following the Government’s directive on the use of cashless payment systems to curb the spread of COVID-19,” CA stated.
However, customer-to-government cash transfer on mobile declined by biggest margin declining by 62.5 percent, from Kes 23.31 billion recorded in the third quarter between January and March to Kes 8.73 billion in the fourth quarter.
Nonetheless, the volume of persons-to-person transfer continued to rise, from Kes 449.89 billion in the last quarter to hit Kes 559.04 billion in Q4, a growth of 24.3 percent.
According to the data, the value of business-to-business mobile money transfer now nears one trillion mark after recording a 13.3 percent growth to reach Kes 994.64 billion.
In total, the value of cash transfer on the three mobile money services; M-pesa, Airtel Money, and T-Kash grew to reach 2.56 trillion during the period under review.
“As at 30th June 2020, active mobile money subscriptions stood at 30.5 million, whereas active mobile money agents stood at 223,184. M-Pesa continued to dominate the mobile money service with a market share of 98.9 percent,”
Local and travel restrictions imposed during the period saw postal ad courier service make a huge decline where the number of letters sent locally and international outgoing letters dipped 58 percent and 61.5 percent respectively.
CA expects uptake of telecommunications services to continue rising as a result of disruptions caused by COVID-19.
“The ICT sector continues to play a critical role in Kenya’s response to the pandemic, especially mobile money, which is a critical enabler of financial inclusion,” CA noted.
