Equitel Marks a 13 Percent Double Digit Growth Driven by Mobile Payments

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

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 percent increase. At the same time, the value of mobile commerce transactions increased to 328.2 billion shillings, a 13 percent increase from 290.3 billion shillings 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 accounted for 23 percent or 328 billion shillings of the 1.427 trillion shillings that was transacted in the form of mobile commerce payments.

The volume of a person-to-person transfer also increased by 2 percent to stand at 117 billion shillings from 114.1 billion shillings over the same period.

Overall, the number of transactions processed stood at 140.4 million up from 128.6 million translating to a 9 percent increase while the value of transactions increased by 6 percent to stand at 413.4 billion shillings from 389.3 billion shillings. 

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

Equitel, which was launched in July 2015, now accounts for close to 22 percent of the 1.919 trillion shillings that was moved in the economy through mobile money services in the third quarter of the fiscal year.