mKey, Africa’s first keyboard app that converges social, and financial services into an integrated lifestyle, has recorded close to 100,000 downloads since its official launch in early September.

Finserve, the fintech that operates mKey, has reported that as at the end of October 99,970 users had downloaded the keyboard app with 309,000 transactions worth Ksh17.8 million having being processed over this period. mKey additionally processed loans worth Ksh5.2 million over this period.

mKey, app is targeted at Kenya’s increasingly digital population that is becoming savvier in enhancing their lifestyle through technology and who evidently want to perform financial transactions without visiting a bank or even switching apps.

mKey results come on the heels of a recent report by the Communications Authority which stated that Equitel, another product by Finserve, similarly recorded strong growth over the fourth fiscal quarter (April-June 2018).

Equitel recorded double digit growth in both the value and number of mobile money commerce transactions, according to the Communications Authority data.

Equitel processed 87.9 million mobile commerce transactions between April 2018 and June 2018, up from 77.6 million transactions in the preceding quarter, representing a 13 per cent increase. At the same time the value of mobile commerce transactions increased to Ksh328.2 billion, a 13 per cent increase from Ksh290.3 billion that was processed over the same period.

Equitel is increasingly growing the volume and value of mobile commerce transactions boosted in part by the EazzyPay Paybill number that allows payments to be received from all mobile money transfer services through the interoperability feature.

Equitel further accounted for 23 per cent or Ksh328 billion of the Ksh1.427 trillion that was transacted in the form of mobile commerce payments.

The volume of person-to-person transfers on the other hand increased by 2 per cent to stand at Ksh117 billion from Ksh114.1 billion over the same period.

 Overall the number of transactions processed stood at 140.4 million up from 128.6 million translating to a 9 per cent increase while the value of transactions increased by 6 per cent to stand at Ksh413.4 billion from Ksh389.3 billion. 

Equitel’s subscription base as at June 2018 was 1.95 million.