Mobile Money achieved US$55.1bln record performance in 2021 in Kenya

According to the Central Bank of Kenya, mobile money transactions amounted to US$55.1 billion between January and November 2021 with 1.9 trillion transactions on 67.15 million active accounts. This indicates a value of mobile money transactions that exceed the first eleven months of 2021 and approx. 20% higher than the whole of 2020. The number of transactions also grew by about 19% compared to the 1.6 trillion in 2020 for 66.01 million active accounts. Despite the exclusion of COVID-19 subsidies, the volume of mobile money transactions has continued to increase. On 16 March 2020, a series of emergency measures were adopted by the Central Bank of Kenya to facilitate mobile money transactions during the lockdown. These measures included waiving fees for mobile money transactions of up to KSh1,000, waiving transfer fees between mobile money wallets and bank accounts.