Kenyan households received KSh 931.8 billion in remittances between June 2024 and May 2025.
According to the 2025 Remittances Household Survey, the first nationwide study of its kind, conducted by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the Central Bank of Kenya and Financial Sector Deepening Kenya.
The number tells part of the story. Who sends, who receives, how the money moves, and what families spend it on tells you far more about the state of Kenya’s economy than any figure alone can.
The Survey That Changed What We Know
For years, Kenya measured remittance inflows through commercial bank data fed into the International Transaction Reporting System. That approach captured formal, bank-mediated transfers and left out nearly everything else. Informal transfers, in-kind goods, outflows to Kenyans studying abroad, and the receiving patterns of rural households remained invisible in the data.
The 2025 RHS addressed that gap directly. As the report states, “existing administrative data, largely sourced from commercial banks and other regulated institutions, mainly capture remittances transmitted through formal channels. As a result, informal transfers, in-kind remittances, and outflows remain underreported, leading to incomplete and potentially underestimated remittance statistics.”
The survey reached 2,425 households across all 47 counties, targeting individuals who had sent or received remittances in the preceding 12 months. Rural households achieved a response rate of 94 per cent. Urban households came in at 70 per cent, producing an overall rate of 78 per cent.
The Money Flows In, Mostly From America
Cash transfers accounted for KSh 848.4 billion, or 91 per cent of total inflows. In-kind transfers, covering goods from clothing and electronics to food, made up the remaining KSh 83.5 billion.
The United States drove the largest share of inflows, contributing 43.5 per cent of total remittances. Germany ranked second, followed by Australia. Within Africa, South Sudan led the East African Community corridor at KSh 36.9 billion in cash, with Uganda and Tanzania also featuring as sources of note.
First-generation diaspora members, Kenyans born in Kenya who migrated abroad, sent KSh 797.5 billion, representing 85.6 per cent of all inflows. Remittances from second and third-generation diaspora members fell to KSh 61.6 billion and KSh 20.2 billion respectively. The report attributes the decline to weakening ties between later generations and their relatives in Kenya, describing it as “a decline in the level of connection between the children and grandchildren of the first-generation emigrants with their families in Kenya.”
M-PESA Leads the Transfer Chain
Formal channels handled 92.1 per cent of all cash remittances. Commercial banks transmitted KSh 371 billion, or 43.7 per cent of the total. Mobile money platforms moved KSh 282 billion, or 33.2 per cent. Money Transfer Operators such as Western Union, MoneyGram and Dahabshiil accounted for 13.2 per cent.
When recipients were asked which channel they used most recently, mobile money operators topped the list at 46.5 per cent, ahead of commercial banks at 34.9 per cent. The report attributes this position to “widespread penetration both in rural and urban areas, convenience, real-time transfer capability, and low transaction costs relative to other channels.”
Informal channels, including in-person delivery, Hawala and Hundi, handled 7.9 per cent of cash inflows. Cryptocurrency transactions appeared in the data but remained at the margins. The report notes that “cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are not currently regulated and not recognized as legal tender in Kenya.”
This picture connects to a concern flagged by Khusoko in its coverage of Kenya’s external sector, where reporting noted that remittance growth was under pressure as economic conditions tightened in the Gulf States and parts of Europe. The 2025 RHS data shows how much the country depends on a narrow set of source corridors and channels to fund household consumption.
Speed Matters. The US Corridor Delivers Fastest.
The fastest transfer corridors in the survey period were the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. For transfers from the US, 16.4 per cent of recipients received cash within the same day, with 9.4 per cent receiving funds in under an hour. The report links the performance of Gulf corridors to “digital rails or efficient cash-out networks mainly from banks and mobile money operators.”
France and Norway stood at the other end of the scale, with transfers taking three days or more for a measurable share of recipients.
Transaction costs varied by corridor. Transfers from Spain carried an encashment cost of KSh 0.10 per KSh 1,000 received. South Africa cost KSh 15.80, Qatar KSh 14.50 and Turkey KSh 14.10. Across channels, Hundi and World Remit carried the highest average transaction costs at KSh 1,500 and KSh 1,401.70 per transaction respectively. Mobile money operators averaged KSh 120.30.
High cost remained the dominant complaint. The survey found that 83.3 per cent of respondents cited elevated transaction charges as their main challenge when receiving cash. Long transfer times followed at 16.2 per cent and stringent Know-Your-Customer requirements at 14.4 per cent. The report frames this as a structural concern: “the primary obstacles to receiving remittance inflows are not the availability of transfer channels, but rather their affordability and accessibility.”
Rural Households Receive the Most. Urban Ones Spend Differently.
Rural households accounted for 65.1 per cent of all remittance-receiving households and 67.2 per cent of those sending remittances out. The rural-urban divide runs through almost every dimension of the data.
In rural areas, cash and in-kind transfers arrived in near-equal measure. In urban areas, cash dominated. Among recipients without formal education, 66.5 per cent received in-kind support rather than cash. The pattern held in rural settings but reversed in urban ones, where the report notes that “cash remittances were predominant, underscoring a key distinction in the way support systems operate or are utilized depending on the area of residence.”
Male recipients in rural areas received KSh 404.7 billion in total. Urban women received KSh 206.2 billion, more than urban men at KSh 118 billion.
The age group between 30 and 39 years captured KSh 411.7 billion, or 44.2 per cent of total inflows. Recipients aged 60 and above collected KSh 171.9 billion, suggesting that remittances sustain older household members who fall outside the formal pension system.
How Families Spend the Money
The largest single use of cash remittances was food and household goods. Seventy-three per cent of respondents reported directing funds toward this category. Education came second at 31.4 per cent, followed by medical expenses at 23.9 per cent and clothing at 19.8 per cent.
Female recipients directed a greater share toward food, household goods and clothing. Male recipients put more toward education and farming.
Investment in financial instruments remained at low levels. Only 6.5 per cent of recipients held securities, 5.4 per cent held microfinance accounts, and 1.6 per cent reported owning a cryptocurrency account. Mobile bank account ownership reached 82.5 per cent and bank account ownership 55.4 per cent. The report identifies the gap between account ownership and investment behaviour as an opportunity: recipients “have a strong foundation for utilizing cash remittances to boost savings, increase insurance uptake, and promote investment behavior” but uptake of those products remains low.
On who controls spending, the data shows that recipients themselves made the call in 48.9 per cent of cases. Heads of household decided in 32.3 per cent and senders in 15.8 per cent. The report notes that this distribution “has important implications for financial inclusion, investment behavior, gender dynamics, and the likelihood of remittances being channeled toward long-term or productive uses.”
Kenya Sends Money Out Too. Mostly to Students.
Kenyan households sent a total of KSh 40.5 billion in remittances during the reference period. Students and pupils studying abroad received KSh 27.7 billion of that total, or 68.4 per cent.
Turkey received the largest share of cash outflows at 27.8 per cent. The United States ranked second at 18.3 per cent, followed by the United Kingdom at 17.2 per cent. Within East Africa, Uganda absorbed KSh 4.3 billion.
The report flags the education-driven outflow as a balance of payments concern, stating that “this remittance outflow can impact negatively on the country’s balance of payment position and should therefore be minimized by locally providing education opportunities that Kenyans would otherwise seek abroad.”
What the Data Reveals About Kenya’s Economic Fabric
The 2025 RHS maps the financial anatomy of Kenyan households at a moment when the country’s external sector faces simultaneous pressure from a widening current account deficit, tighter global credit and elevated transfer costs.
As Khusoko has reported, Kenya’s current account deficit is forecast to reach 3.0 per cent of GDP in 2026, with analysts warning it could go higher if conditions in the Middle East continue to disrupt freight and energy costs. Within that context, the KSh 931.8 billion that diaspora communities sent home last year represents an irreplaceable buffer. It funds food, school fees and medicine in households that would otherwise fall below subsistence in a difficult year.
Three structural realities stand out from the data. First, remittance flows track education. Recipients with university education received 30.8 per cent of all inflows, and the outflow data confirms that education spending abroad drives the majority of money leaving the country. Second, mobile money functions as the default infrastructure for cross-border household finance, handling nearly half of all transfers at the most recent point of use. Third, high transaction costs remain the biggest obstacle between diaspora earnings and the families waiting for them.
The Vision 2030 target of KSh 1 trillion in annual remittance inflows sits within reach. Total inflows for the survey period landed at KSh 931.8 billion. The report is direct about what closing the gap requires: “policies that reduce transaction costs, expand access to affordable formal transfer channels, and leverage remittances for education, health, and environmentally sustainable investments.”
