Kenya’s biggest telecoms operator Safaricom controls 50 percent of all inbound diaspora remittance through its M-Pesa Global platform.
According to the Central Bank of Kenya data, it accounted for Kshs 2.65 trillion between April 2019 and the end of March this year.
M-PESA Global allows customers to make and receive payments from 200 markets across the world since its launch in 2018.
During the period, it registered a 12.1 percent growth in the period with M-pesa service transactional value at Kshs 13.9 trillion after registering a growth of 18.4 percent as revealed from the telco’s 9th Sustainable Business Report.
“Our key partners in the remittance space include Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria, WorldRemit, Wave, Remitly among others. We continue to add to our international payment partnerships as well and these now include PayPal, Google Playstore and AliExpress,” said the telco.
Customers can access the M-PESA Global service by dialling *840# or by selecting “M-PESA Global” under the M-PESA menu on mySafaricomApp.
Safaricom says M-pesa created a social value amounting to Kshs 234.1 billion.
“The social value of M-Pesa remains a significant creator of value for Kenyan society, increasing by 10 percent in the last financial year. The major drivers of this growth have been the increase in numbers of customers, agents and merchants; the increase in the average number of transactions per customer; and the increase in the average value of transactions made per customer,” the report stated.
“The greatest value continues to be felt by customers, who benefit from their improved ability to manage and save money, lower transaction costs, less theft, as well as the wellbeing that comes with access to goods, services and opportunities, and increased safety and security.”
