Mobile money is now leading payment system in Kenya

Available statistics indicate that with 26 million subscribers, money transacted through mobile phones hit Kshs 1.3 trillion in the first half of 2015 up from Kshs 1.1 trillion at the same period last year.

The Communications Authority Director General (DG), Francis Wangusi while opening the Conformance and Interoperability (C&I) validation workshop for EAC region in Nairobi on Wednesday, consequently hinted on the importance of collaboration on the need to secure mobile communications in the region.

“In Kenya, the ICT sector has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, with the telecommunications sub-sector leading the pack. Currently, our mobile penetration stands at an impressive 83 per cent with a total subscription of 36 million. The penetration of mobile money services has continued to expand at a fast pace, with a total subscription of 28 million. Indeed mobile money platform is now the leading payment system in the country,” he said.

In his remarks, the DG observed that, “Wide application and utility of ICTs is playing a key role in driving socio-economic development within the five EAC member countries, and in freeing a sizeable proportion of our people from the fetters of poverty. As a region, we therefore need to collaborate in all spheres of ICT to sustain the growth of this important sector.”

According to a report by Central Bank of Kenya released in August, in the six months of this year, about Kshs 7.3 billion has been transacted daily, up from a daily average of Kshs 6.2 billion in a similar period in 2014. This has been attributed to the growth in mobile money transactions has been aided by improved product offerings across the various mobile payment platforms.

As compared to the other East African Countries Kenya still leads the pack in Mobile Money transactions.

For Uganda, the first quarter of 2015, the number of mobile money subscribers grew by 2.5 per cent up from 18.53 million to 19 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2014. The number of transactions grew from 137 million to 143 million resulting to a 3.9 per cent growth, according a to report by Uganda communications commission. The value of transaction increase from UGX 6.3 trillion to UGX6.8 trillion, resulting to a 7.9 per cent growth while the number of mobile money agents grew by 11.1 per cent up from 78,593 to 87,332 in that same period.

Mobile Telephone Company MTN Uganda announced that the value of mobile money transactions on its platform increased by 24 per cent this year to reach Ushs 16.8 trillion.

This is an upward adjustment of Ush1.428 trillion, compared to last year’s estimates of Ush15.372 trillion in mobile money transaction value. MTN attributed the growth was mainly to the integration of financial services into the mobile money portfolio.

In Tanzania on the other hand, money transacted through mobile phones hit US $17.7 billion as at November 2014.

As East Africa embraces mobile money as mode of transactions, Kenya through the ICT regulator is as well collaborating closely with EAC member countries to establish harmonized communications regulations, standards and specifications as the region pushes the integration agenda and the creation of a common market for ICT products and services.

The EAC member countries are also working on an initiative for the region in the area of conformance and interoperability assessment. Collaboration in this area will go a long way to eliminate duplication and thus enhance efficiency through mutual recognition of equipment type approved by other EAC member countries.