Mobile money use has reached 73.3% because of M-PESA.
According to the Communications Authority of Kenya’s most recent sector data, Safaricom’s M-PESA continues to rule the mobile money world. The same thing was noted when the sector statistics for the second quarter of the fiscal year 2021–2022, which concluded in December 2021, were released. Regarding growth, it doesn’t seem like much has changed for other mobile money wallets like T-Kash by Telkom Kenya and Airtel Money by Airtel Kenya.
However, the figures for the third quarter, which concluded in March 2022, reveal that the platforms added new users and saw an increase in transaction volumes.
Mobile money wallets that go beyond P2P transfers and cash-in/cash-out transactions have inspired this.
Particularly, the number of mobile money subscribers increased from 35.2 million in the second quarter to 36.4 million in the most recent quarter (third). Additionally, it resulted in a penetration rate of 73.8%.
Following is an evaluation of each wallet’s performance over the evaluation period (in KES):
Due to the success of M-PESA, Safaricom continues to command the market with significant numbers.
The CA also no longer discloses the precise market share of any mobile money product, although the last time it did, M-PESA had a market share of almost 99 percent.
State agencies have recently been working to level the playing field for all mobile money services. Interoperability for mobile money was the first step in this, and it went live in 2018. The CBK ordered M-PESA to permit clients to pay bills using T-Kash or Airtel Money in 2022. Currently, pay bill services are not interoperable.
T-Kash and others.
Any consumer will be able to receive service from any mobile money agent in 2023, regardless of whether they are using M-PESA or another mobile money wallet. This would significantly help with the lack of agents, like those that assist T-Kash or Airtel Money clients.
T-Kash, on the other hand, has been attempting to advance independently.
Since then, we’ve learnt that it’s getting ready to offer its customers a lending product called T-Kash Loan. We predict that it will function similarly to M-Shwari, but that won’t be known until the product is made available.
Since its first release, T-Kash has also offered a smartphone app that functions similarly to the M-PESA app. The app now uses biometric authentication for transaction processing thanks to recent upgrades. It is clear at this time that M-PESA has expanded the scope of its product line beyond bill payment and peer-to-peer (P2P). With the most current being a virtual card for international payments enabled by VISA, it now offers a wide range of use cases.