The latest sector data from the Communications Authority of Kenya has revealed that Safaricom’s M-PESA is still king in the mobile money space. We said the same thing during the sector stats release for the second quarter of the 2021/2022 FY that ended in December 2021. Nothing appears to have substantially changed in terms of growth for other mobile money wallets, namely T-Kash by Telkom Kenya and Airtel Money by Airtel Kenya.
The results for the third quarter, which ended in March 2022, however, showcase that the platforms received additional users, and the volumes transacted also grew.
This has been motivated by mobile money wallets going beyond P2P transfers and cash-in/cash-out transactions.
Specifically, mobile money subscriptions rose from 35.2 million recorded during the second quarter to 36.4 million in the latest quarter (third).
This also translated to a penetration rate of 73.8 percent.
Here is how each wallet performed during the period under assessment (in KES):
| Brand | M-PESA | Airtel Money | T-Kash | Total |
| Agents | 262K | 23.3K | 8.3K | 293.5K |
| Value of C2B | 1.38 trillion | 1.66 billion | 86.3 million | 1.39 trillion |
| Value of B2C | 919 billion | 396 million | 148 million | 920 billion |
| Value of B2B | 2.2 trillion | – | – | 2.2 trillion |
| Value to G2C | 882 million | – | – | 882 million |
| Value of C2G | 13 billion | 14 million | 61K | 13.5 billion |
| Volume of P2P | 1.0 billion | 805K | 637K | 1.0 billion |
| Value of P2P | 1.1 trillion | 513 million | 169 million | 1.11 trillion |
| Total Value of Deposits | 1.2 trillion | 1.5 billion | 85 million | 1.257 trillion |
As said, Safaricom continues to lead the pack with massive numbers thanks to the popularity of M-PESA.
Besides, the CA no longer shares the exact market share of each mobile money product, but the last time it did, M-PESA was at more than 99 percent.
Recently, state agencies have been trying to level the ground for all mobile money products. This started with mobile money interoperability, which went live in 2018.
In 2022, the CBK directed M-PESA to allow bill payments for customers using T-Kash or Airtel Money. Paybill services, at this point, are not interoperable.
In 2023, it is expected that all mobile money agents will be able to serve any customer, regardless of if they are using M-PESA or any other mobile money wallet. This will go a long way in addressing the scarcity of agents, such as those that serve T-Kash or Airtel Money customers.
T-Kash, on the other hand, has been trying to make strides on its own. We have since learned that it is prepping a loan product, named T-Kash Loan for its users. We project it will work in a similar manner as M-Shwari, but that can only be known when the product is launched.
T-Kash has also, and since launched a T-Kash app for smartphones that works like the M-PESA app. Its recent updates have seen the app receive biometrics authentication for processing transactions.
At this point, it is obvious that M-PESA has diversified its product portfolio to go beyond P2P and bill payments. It has rich use cases now, with the most recent one being a virtual card for international payments powered by VISA.
