Consumer-to-Business transactions in Kenya have increased significantly during the third quarter of the 2019/2020 financial period, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA).

The regulator’s quarterly report (January to March 2020, Q3) underlined an increase to Kshs 310.4-billion from Kshs 294-billion recorded during the October to December 2019 quarter.

In March 2020, as the country faced the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenya’s government urged citizens to opt for digital transactions and discouraged the use of physical cash.

Consequently, the government stopped all charges for mobile transfer of Kshs 1,000 and below for 90 days.

This has since been extended by the Central Bank of Kenya.

The report detailed how M-Pesa has edged closer to dominance within the mobile money landscape, registering a 98% market share over Airtel Money and Telkom T-Kash.

“In terms of market shares for mobile money subscriptions, M-Pesa retained the highest market share of 98.8 percent, whereas Airtel Money and T-Kash recorded market shares of 1.1 and 0.05 percent respectively,” the report stated.

Total active mobile money customers stands at 29,185,577 subscriptions whereas Safaricom’s M-Pesa nabbed 28,842,584 subscriptions. T-Kash mobile subscribers dropped from 19,607 subscribers in Q2 to 13,333 subscribers in Q3. Airtel Money’s subscription base experienced slight growth from 328,938 to 329'660 last quarter.

M-Pesa took the lion’s share of the Business-to-Business money transfer space, with over Kshs 878-billion.

Safaricom is seeking to push its mobile money sector with a new Lipa na M-Pesa business mobile application for its 170,000 merchants.

According to Safaricom, the app – launched in mid-June 2020 – will empower business owners to access real-time statements, export statements, and track their business performance on the go.