CBK Report: Mobile financial services see significant growth in 2023

CBK Report: Mobile financial services see significant growth in 2023

The report reveals that Kenyans transacted a record high in terms of transactions compared to previous years.

Most Kenyans are conducting their financial services transactions via mobile phones, according to the latest 2023 Banking Supervision Report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

This represents a 1.67 per cent growth rate in the number of people who were utilising mobile phone financial services for the year ended December 2023.

The report reveals that Kenyans transacted a record high in terms of transactions compared to previous years.

With an increase in active money agents countrywide by 2.68 per cent from 318,607 to 327,162, CBK notes the number of transactions has gone up by 13.8 per cent. This has boosted the value of transactions to Sh788.35 billion in December 2023 from Sh708.06 billion in December 2022.

"The total value of mobile money transactions in the year ended December 2023 reached a record high of Sh788.35 billion," CBK stated.

The bank regulator has attributed the recent statistics to several factors, including, the increasing demand for cashless transactions. With the establishment of 8,555 new active mobile money agents, CBK suggests that entrepreneurs identified untapped opportunities in the market.

With a great demand for convenient financial services, CBK recorded an increase of new mobile subscribers by 1.1 million users bringing the total count of active mobile subscriptions to 66.8 million in December 2023.

"The mobile subscriptions slightly grew to 66.8 million from 65.7 million reported during the preceding period, representing a mobile penetration rate of 131.9 per cent," notes CBK.

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