The value of mobile transactions in the 11 months to November last year hit 7.2 trillion shillings, representing a 15 percent growth compared to the 6.24 trillion shillings recorded in a similar period in 2021.
This highlights the growing preference for cashless transfers as zero rating of fees between mobile money wallets and bank accounts continued to drive usage.
Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) show the volume of mobile money transactions grew by 4.9 percent to 2.07 billion transactions from 1.97 billion.
The growth defies the move by the CBK to reinstate charges on low-value cash transactions in January 2021. CBK scrapped mobile money transfer charges on transactions below 1,000 shillings in March 2020 in a move that was aimed at discouraging the use of cash during payments to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The apex bank had also suspended charges on transactions between mobile money and bank accounts before reinstating the charges this month. The charges introduced by the regulator are however low compared to those applied before.
CBK said the waiver had achieved its target of growing the use of mobile money as well as protecting users from high transaction charges.
CBK noted that between March 2020 and October 2022, active mobile money users has risen by 6.2 million while the monthly volume and value of Person-to-Person transactions increased from 162 million transactions worth 234 billion shillings to 440 million transactions worth 399 billion shillings. This represents an increase of 171 percent and 71 percent respectively.
Over the same period, the monthly volume and value of transactions between PSPs and banks increased from 18 million transactions worth about 157 billion shillings to over 113 million transactions worth 800 billion shillings, representing 527 percent and 410 percent respectively.
CBK said The resumption of revised charges is geared towards building on the gains on the financial system, as well as facilitating a transition towards sustainable growth of the mobile money ecosystem.
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