Mobile money transactions hit 7 billion shillings daily mark

Mobile money transactions hit the 7 billion mark per day in October 2015. These transactions have been majorly enabled by Mpesa, Safaricom's mobile money transfer brand.. This signals a bright future for Africa's Mobile payments industry. Stakeholders are bracing for a massive growth going into 2015 mainly because of the acceptance by more sectors of the economy. Safaricom who owns nearly 80% of the market share attributes the spike in transactions and mobile money payments to an increase in agents who are cashing in to reap some profits.
The banking sector is increasingly embracing mobile money and customers can now pay straight from their accounts through MPESA. Paying of utility bills has never been easier. More merchants have also embraced this new technology. Safaricom says that a record 32 thousand merchants are now connected and receiving payments via mobile money. Mobile transactions rose to 210 billion shillings in October up from 206 billion shillings the previous month.
The uptake of mobile money transactions and payments has seen a drop in card payments. Cards payments stood at sh 104 billion from January till October which is a drop from 129 billion shillings recorded last year same period. Visa MasterCard has gone full throttle in marketing their cashless payment mode on print and electronic media. Other players deep in the fight for market share for the payments business are Jambopay ,Equity Bank with their flagship payments brand Equitel, Mobicash, Tangaza and the list goes on and on. Africans are embracing the mobile payments phenomenon at a good rate even though the large percentage are still stuck to cash. Converting the hard cash users to mobile payments ambassadors will be the win for the stake holders in this industry.