Mobile money services continue to soar in popularity among Kenyans as evidenced by the latest numbers where Kenyans have made transactions worth Ksh 1.2 trillion in the fourth quarter of the 2016/2017 financial year. According to the Communications Authority Sector Statistics report for 4th Quarter 2016/2017 (PDF), the Ksh. 1.2 trillion was the total after adding the withdrawals and deposits from the 480.5 million transactions. Safaricom’s M-PESA led the pack with 22,624,298 subscriptions and Kshs. 904 million in total value of transactions. Equitel money took second position with 1,864,838 subscriptions and Ksh. 312 million in total value of transactions. Mobile Pay took the third position with Ksh. 1.5 million as value of transactions with just 87,786 subscriptions while Airtel Kenya took the fourth position with 1,530,645 subscriptions and Ksh. 1.2 million in total value for transactions. Although Mobikash boasts more subscriptions than Airtel, its total value of transactions was less than that of Airtel and stood at Ksh. 127,032,829. Orange Money was at sixth position with 194,445 subscriptions and Ksh. 85,270,000. “The positive growth witnessed in the mobile money transfer service was largely driven by the widespread use of mobile money solutions and adoption of the service among traditionally underserved groups (rural populations), and increasingly broad range of mobile money services (including insurance and loan products) in Kenya,” reads part of the report. Additionally, goods and services purchased over mobile platform amounted to 692.1 billion Kenya shillings which involved 316.5 million mobile commerce transactions. Person to person transfers were valued at 541.8 billion Kenya Shillings.
