Airtel Money market share grows two-fold, M-Pesa dips

M-Pesa's current share is the lowest since the communications sector regulator started making the disclosures in September 2022, when the Safaricom-owned platform enjoyed a 96.8 percent market share against Airtel Money's 3.1 percent.

M-Pesa's loosening grip came during a year when the overall mobile money subscriptions in the country jumped to 39.8 million up from 38 million in June last year, translating to a 77.3 mobile money penetration rate.

Read: KCB and Airtel Money in merchant payments deal

"As at June 30, 2024, mobile money subscriptions stood at 39.8 million translating to a penetration rate of 77.3 percent. This increase is directly proportional to the increase in mobile (SIM) subscriptions," said CA in its newly published sector statistics report for the period ending June this year.

"However, the removal of withdrawal codes for transactions sent from M-Pesa to Airtel Money, enabling funds to be transferred directly into the Airtel Money account (wallet) could have enhanced the uptake for mobile money services," the regulator said.

Safaricom completed the full acquisition of M-Pesa Holding Company Limited from its ultimate parent firm Vodafone Group PLC in October last year, finalising a process that had been initiated six months earlier.

Officially launched in Kenya in March 2007, the M-Pesa platform offers a wide range of financial services that include cash transfers, credit provision as well as payments, and has for the years entrenched its hold on customers from the many use cases and network effect.

As of September last year, M-Pesa customers were holding a collective sum of Sh273.9 billion in their mobile wallets, which was a Sh74.9 billion growth from Sh199 billion at the end of March of the same year.

The telco's disclosures indicated at the time that the platform is used more for personal transfers and payments rather than long-term deposits, explaining its relatively smaller deposit base despite having more customers compared to banks.

Read: ​​​​​​​Mobile money subscriptions rebound after scrapping of Airtel transfer code

Airtel, on the other hand, is banking on the ongoing network expansion efforts across the country to take mobile money services closer to customers and enhance convenience.

​​​​​​​Just last month, the country's second-largest telco inked an interoperability partnership with KCB Bank Kenya that will see the latter's customers operating businesses receive payments from Airtel Money customers into their tills.

The partnership is part of the country's National Payments Strategy 2022-2025 through which the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) introduced interoperability that saw Airtel Kenya, Safaricom, and Telkom Kenya allow customers to send and receive money across their networks.