The impact of M-Pesa on Kenya’s economy has deepened, with the value of money moving through the mobile money platform now more than eight times that of the country’s budget.
In the 2022 Sustainability Report, Safaricom has revealed that a total of Sh29.55 trillion was transacted on M-Pesa in its financial year to March 2022, as customers and revenues grew. Kenya’s budget during the 2021/2022 financial year was Sh3.66 trillion.
A 34 per cent growth in the value transacted through the platform compared to the Sh22 trillion Kenyans transacted on M-Pesa during the previous year, revenues from the platform also shot up by 30.4 per cent to see Safaricom earn Sh107.7 billion from the product created 15 years ago.
The growth in value of cash being transacted through M-Pesa in the country has been triggered by an increase in payments through mobile money, which has also seen the number of merchants grow, Safaricom says.
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“The major drivers of this growth were the increase in the numbers of customers and agents, a significant increase in the number of merchants, the increase in the average number of transactions per customer, as well as the increase in the average value of transactions made per customer,” the company said.
The company reported that its Lipa na M-Pesa merchants increased by 63.4 per cent to 492,772, while noting a growing usage of the Pochi La Biashara and Business Transacting Till products.
M-Pesa customers increased by 2.2 million to hit 30.5 million by March 2022, the company stated.
“During the reporting period (April 2021 to March 2022), our biggest innovation, M-Pesa, which celebrated 15 years also celebrated 30 million customer mark — monthly active customers. And I dare say that, since then, we’ve seen another two million join the franchise,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said on Tuesday. Among the key amounts transacted through M-Pesa during the period were through the overdraft product, Fuliza (Sh502.6 billion) and diaspora remittances, which reached Sh395.7 billion, a 36.6 per cent growth.
A total of 1.456 million Fuliza transactions were handled during the year, an 85 per cent growth from 787,100 transactions the previous year. The company also noted an increased usage of its Business Transacting Till, which enables small business owners to collect payments on their till and use the money to make other payments directly from their till.
“Such payments include wages/salaries, the withdrawal of funds from an M-Pesa agent, the sale of airtime to customers and the earning of commission without needing to go to the bank or phone as was the case with the original Buy Goods Till product. During the reporting period, there were 169,763 monthly active users and we achieved revenue of Sh827,018,589, with values for these secondary transactions growing by 85 per cent year-on-year,” the company stated.
The company also noted its Pochi La Biashara product as one it is keen to nurture and grow, as revenues from services offered on the product grow. The service enables food vendors, small kiosk owners, boda boda operators, and second-hand clothes dealers to receive and separate business funds from personal funds on their same M-Pesa line.
“This service now has over three million signed-up micro businesses with more than 170,000 monthly active users. Revenue generated in FY22 was Sh80,999,088,” Safaricom stated. BY DAILY NATION