M-PESA, Safaricom’s cell cash service, has declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, weighed down by elevated interoperability and Airtel Cash’s aggressive promotions, together with transaction payment refunds as airtime. 

M-PESA’s market share fell by 2.3 proportion factors to 91% in This autumn 2024 in comparison with Q3, whereas Airtel Cash grew from 7.6% to eight.9% in the identical interval, in response to information from the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA). 

The sustained decline in M-PESA’s market share alerts a shifting aggressive panorama in Kenya’s cell cash ecosystem. Elevated interoperability since 2022 has made it simpler for patrons to change service suppliers. Airtel Cash’s aggressive promotions, decrease charges, and elevated agent networks are drawing extra clients. 

The expansion in Airtel Cash’s clients means that many new cell cash accounts have joined its platform. 

“Subscription to cell cash companies grew by 4.1 % to 42.3 million translating to a penetration fee of 82.1 % throughout the reference interval,” CA mentioned in its sector report. 

Airtel Cash stays the extra reasonably priced choice for transactions, which may additionally clarify why it’s consuming into M-PESA’s market. Sending KES 1,000 ($7.7) to different networks prices KES 11 (0.085) on Airtel Cash, in comparison with M-PESA’s KES 13 ($0.093), whereas withdrawing the identical quantity prices KES 29 ($0.22) on Airtel Cash—KES 2 lower than M-PESA. 

Airtel has additionally strengthened its agent community, partnering with grocery store chains like Naivas to host factors the place clients can deposit and withdraw money. M-Pesa has over 160,000 brokers unfold throughout the nation, giving it an edge over Airtel. 

The Central Financial institution of Kenya (CBK) ‘s plan to implement agent interoperability, which might permit customers to entry cell cash companies from any agent, whatever the supplier, stays unfulfilled regardless of the regulator’s dedication to roll it out by 2024.

With over 34 million clients, M-PESA remains to be the dominant cell funds platform, dealing with over 30 billion transactions with an estimated KES40 trillion ($308.8 million).  Airtel Cash has an estimated eight million registered customers. 

CBK’s deliberate rollout of a brand new Quick Cost System (FPS), which is able to permit prompt transactions throughout all monetary establishments, together with banks and fee service suppliers (PSPs), may additional problem M-Pesa’s dominance available in the market.