M-Pesa, partly owned by Safaricom and South Africa’s Vodacom Group, is the largest mobile money service provider in Africa, according to data released by the Vodacom Group.
Vodacom revealed that the Mobile money service provider processes at least is Ksh1.6 trillion per month in Kenya and other African countries every month.
“Since launching in 2007, M-Pesa has grown to have the largest reach of any financial services provider in Africa, with 39.6 million active customers, including Safaricom, up 9.7 percent year-on-year,” said Vodacom.
“Customers in our international markets, including Safaricom, now process more than $14.7 billion (Ksh1.6 trillion) a month in transactions through the platform, making it Africa’s biggest payment platform.”
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The data included M-Pesa statistics for Kenya, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho.
M-Pesa was discontinued in South Africa in June 2016 after it failed to gain traction for business viability.
Vodacom reported that M-Pesa revenue from Vodacom international markets grew 29.8 percent to Ksh24.7 billion, representing 18.3 percent of total service revenue.
“This performance was underpinned by robust revenue growth in Mozambique (59.4 percent), strong growth in the DRC (48.3 percent) and Lesotho (27 percent), and a solid performance in Tanzania (7.4 percent), despite intensifying competitive pressure and a more challenging regulatory environment,” added Vodacom.
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Revenues in Kenya rose 12.6 percent to Ksh84.4 billion over the same period. Active M-Pesa subscribers in Kenya stand at 25 million.
“M-Pesa now contributes 33.6 percent of service revenue while mobile data is now contributing 16.2 percent, thereby reducing the reliance on voice and messaging revenues,” said Safaricom.
However, M-Pesa revenues in Kenya could slump by up to Ksh19 billion by December following the waiver of fees on transfers of up to Ksh1,000.
M-Pesa recently launched a micro-loan and savings product similar to Kenya’s M-Shwari in partnership with FINCA, a micro-credit organisation.
The service allows its customers to save and earn interest via M-Pesa and to get micro credit repayable weekly or monthly, based on a credit score using customers’ mobile money and GSM transactions.
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