{"id":8205,"date":"2010-01-09T12:54:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-09T12:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kahawatungu.com\/?p=109"},"modified":"2019-03-29T18:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T15:51:51","slug":"4-2-billion-sent-through-phones-in-12-months-in-kenya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kahawatungu.com\/4-2-billion-sent-through-phones-in-12-months-in-kenya\/","title":{"rendered":"$ 4.2 billion Sent Through Phones in 12 Months in Kenya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Safaricom<\/a> and Zain<\/span> transferred a whopping Sh318.4 billion through their mobile money transfer services in 12 months up to June last year, according to the Central Bank of Kenya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The bank says Safaricom and Zain transferred the money, which translates to about Sh1 billion per day, between June 30, 2008 and June 30, 2009 through their M-Pesa<\/a> and Zap<\/span> services respectively.<\/p>\n

This is critical especially to the millions of rural and unbanked Kenyans who live in abject poverty, most on less than a dollar (Sh75) a day, and have to rely financially on relatives and friends in the cities.<\/p>\n

M-Pesa Shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>“Similarly, the number of transactions increased from 21.8 million to 125.1 million over the same period,” CBK governor, Prof Njuguna Ndung’u, says in the bank’s annual report to be presented to Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.<\/p>\n

Registered mobile phone money transfer customers increased from three million to 7.4 million last year.<\/p>\n

Given that Zain launched Zap in March 2009, Safaricom’s M-Pesa accounted for the lion’s share of the transactions, overall transfer and customers. Zain had another service, Sokotele, operating before then but was phased out in late 2008.<\/p>\n

Yet, significant changes have not only taken place, but are also likely to continue unfolding with the incumbents digging in and new players joining.<\/p>\n

For instance, M-Pesa has almost 8 million registered users and the value of cumulative person-to-person transfers since inception had hit $3.06 billion by August 2009.<\/p>\n

Zain Kenya managing director, Rene Menza, said they are engaged in partnership discussions with various companies for third party payments.