Kenyans moved Ksh.1.65T in mobile transactions in just three months

Users of mobile phone money transfer services in Kenya transacted over 1.7 trillion shillings between July and September this year, with person to person transfers amounting to 544 billion shillings.

A three-month sector statistics report by the Communications Authority for the period between July and September this year shows how Kenyan’s peculiar habits helped the ICT sector mint billions of shillings

Over the same period, mobile phone users spent over 19 billion minutes on calls and exchanged 11 billion text messages.

These figures contained in a report by the Communications Authority which also shows an increase in the number of mobile phone subscribers to 41m from 40.2m reported in the preceeding quarter with mobile penetration rising to 90.4%.

Safaricom had the lion’s share of the mobile phone subscribers followed by Airtel and Telkom Kenya with Fineserve Africa, Mobile Pay and Sema Mobile services ranking way below the top industry players.

More than sh. 1.65t was transacted through sending and withdrawals in 532.7m transactions. Sh. 714b was spent in paying for goods and services, while sh. 544b was in person to person transfers.

MPesa accounted for up to to sh. 1.3t of the mobile money transfers, with Equitel, Airtel Money, Mobile Pay and Mobikash playing catch up to the dominant market leader.

The CAK report further indicated that 11b minutes of calls were made in three months and more than 19b messages sent during that period.

A majority of the SMSs were off net with roaming calls, in and out of the country being between 35m and 44.2m minutes.

Further, the report indicates an increase in data and internet services use and penetration, with subscriptions hitting the 30m mark.

On average, Safaricom remains the main player in the mobile telephony field with a 71.9% market share even though it had lost 0.7% points during the period under review.