Finserve Africa’s Equitel has registered strong growth in its mobile money transfer market share according to the report released by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK). From the report, Equitel managed to hit 26 percent up from 23 percent in the previous quarter as per the latest data.
“The positive growth witnessed in the mobile money transfer service was largely driven by the widespread use of mobile money solutions and adoption of the service among traditionally underserved groups (rural populations), and increasingly broad range of mobile money services (including insurance and loan products) in Kenya,” reads part of the report.
For the period under the review, Equitel mobile processed transactions worth 311.8 billion shillings in the fourth quarter of the 2016-2017 fiscal year, a 15 percent increase from 271.8 billion shillings that was transacted in the quarter before.
“Mobile money has become an integral part of commerce in Kenya over the past decade. It has evolved to become a loan disbursement tool, adding to other uses such as peer transfers, betting, as paying for shopping, utility bills (water, rent and electricity), school fees, and receiving dividends,” said the report.
Equitel also registered a positive growth of 8.0 percent in mobile subscriptions to post 1.8 million subscriptions during the period under review from 1.7 million recorded in the preceding quarter. EazzyPay which is the mobile commerce solution on Equitel now accounts for 33 percent of the said market share, up from 30 percent in the preceding quarter.
The value of mobile commerce transactions that were processed through EazzyPay stood at 228 billion shillings, a 21 percent increase from 189 billion shillings that was transacted a fiscal quarter earlier.
The Bank is focused on increasing Equitel SIM uptake through its Thin SIM card which is particularly gaining prominence owing to the fact that it doesn’t necessitate getting a dual SIM phone or having 2 phones in case you don’t want to let go of your earlier acquired SIM Card.
Equitel also introduced the My Money feature that enables customers to do all their financial transactions including, transferring money, applying for Eazzy Loans, making payments and putting funds aside to help customers save for future plans and goals.
