08 February 2019

The value of mobile money transactions hit the KES2 trillion milestone for the first time, according to figures released by the Communications Authority (CA) of Kenya in mid-December 2018.

In its latest industry sector statistics report, the CA said that 730.2 million transactions valued at KES2.027 trillion were recorded during the July-September 2018 period – that’s up from 611.3 million transactions valued at KES1.9bn for the previous quarter.

At the same time, mobile commerce transactions went up by 8.8 per cent to reach 526.9 million valued at KES1.5 trillion, while person-to-person transfers were valued at KES718.2bn.

Additionally, the CA said there was a 5.6 per cent increase in the number of mobile money transfer agents operating throughout Kenya.

This now stands at 218, 495, a rise from 206, 940, while actively registered mobile money transfer subscriptions are at 29.7 million.

The report also shows that mobile penetration rose by 2.3 percentage points to hit 100.1 per cent from 97.8 per cent in the previous quarter.

The CA said this increase is mainly attributed to most users owning more than one SIM card, either from the same or different service providers.

According to the authority, this fact is also supported by the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey report released by the National Bureau of Statistics in April 2018.

This indicated that at least 30 per cent of mobile users in Kenya own more than one SIM, translating to an average of 1.3 cards per subscriber.

The number of active mobile subscriptions increased to 46.6 million from 45.5 million in the preceding quarter, marking a 2.4 per cent increase.

In terms of market share, the report said Safaricom’s was down 1.2 percentage points and comes in at 64.2 per cent, whereas Airtel gained 0.9 points to post a share of 22.3 per cent.

Telkom Kenya, Finserve Africa and Mobile Pay recorded shares of 9.0, 4.2 and 0.2 per cent, respectively.

Sema Mobile Services exited the market during the quarter.

The total number of active internet/data subscriptions grew 2.7 per cent from 41.1 million reported in the previous quarter to 42.2 million in the period under review.

The number of mobile data/internet subscriptions also grew 2.7 per cent, from 40.7 million registered users during the previous quarter to 41.8 million in the period under review. 

However, terrestrial wireless data subscriptions declined substantially by 51.3 per cent to stand at 59,380 from 122, 037 in the preceding quarter.

The CA attributed this drop to the regulatory guidance it issued to Mawingu Networks to review its data on the number of data/internet subscriptions.

The report also noted a significant quarterly rise in international internet bandwidth available to Kenya.

This is up from 3,277.72Gbps to 4,623.30Gbps.

The CA said this is because EASSy (Eastern Africa Submarine Cable Systems) increased its capacity from 161.3Gbps to 828.144Gbps during the period.

Given the rapid growth in mobile internet related services and applications, together with increased 4G roll outs, the authority anticipates that Kenya’s data/internet market will expand significantly.

The development and growth of the country’s e-commerce industry is also expected to drive demand for internet services.