Mpesa, Airtel Money, and T-Kash Agents Handle Over Sh700b in July

Mobile money agents in Kenya handled over sh700 billion for the first time in July. According to a report by Business Daily, this is the first time money merchant agents have passed this mark.

The growth reflects an increased reliance on mobile money agents for businesses in Kenya.

Earlier this year, Safaricom allowed Kenyan Airtel and Telkom subscribers to use its services to carry out their transactions using the Paybill option. This allowed the users to pay for their utilities and transfer money to and from their bank accounts and wallets.

Mobile money transactions grew by 8.6% to Sh722.5bn from Sh665.1 billion in June, as indicated by data from the central bank of Kenya (CBK). The number of transactions also increased to sh4.56 trillion from sh3.86 trillion.

More growth has been witnessed due to these transactions in telecoms compared to data and voice.

These transactions have seen Safaricom thrive and garner an increased profit of Sh 50bn from sh39bn for the year ended in March 2022. This contributed to half of the company’s gross earnings. The mobile money transaction limit was raised to 150,000, and the mobile money wallet to 300,000 from March 2020.

The increasing profits can be attributed to these mobile money transactions, which have increased over the past two years.