The amount paid out for goods and services through mobile money increased by Sh36.67 billion to Sh1.84 trillion in the first three months of the year, latest data from the Communication authority shows.
However the number of transactions declined to 571.5 million between January and March, from 586.9 million compared to the October- November 2018 period..
Total value of transactions in transfers from person to person, and withdrawals between January and March increased by Sh1.89 billion to Sh2.122 trillion.
Person-to-person transfers were valued at Sh737.0 billion in the Q3 2019 period, compared to Sh731.9 billion between October to December 2018.
The upsurge in value was pushed by increase in sign up to mobile money transfer operators including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Equitel Money by Equity Holdings , T-Kash by Telkom and Mobile Pay by Danske Bank.
The number of subscriptions to the providers increased to by 435,253 to 32.06 million, against 51.0 million active mobile subscriptions in the country, as at March 31.
The number rose from 49.5 million registered at the end of the second quarter.
The number of agents recorded a declined by 847 to 223,084.
During the quarter under review, Safaricom PLC posted a market share of 62.4 per cent in mobile subscriptions down from 63.3 per cent registered in the previous quarter.
Airtel Networks Limited gained 2.7 percentage points to post a market share of 26.1 per cent.
Telkom Kenya Limited’s market share dropped to 7.9 per cent from 9.0 per cent reported in the previous quarter.
Similarly, Finserve Africa Limited lost 0.8 percentage points to register a market share of 3.4 per cent.
Mobile Pay Limited market share remained unchanged from last quarter at 0.2 per cent.
