Digital payments have continued to rise inconspicuously to break the trend of cash dominance discretely, even as cash remains king in the settlement of transactions on the outside.
Mobile-money which continues to be the key driver behind the digitization of payments and financial inclusion has continued to pay dividends for the cross-over into paperless transactions having sustained an average year over year growth.
According to industry statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) data, the net value of transactions stood at Ksh.2.1 trillion at the end of March to represent a seven percent jump in the average value of a single transaction, quoted at Ksh.2,704 over the period.
The improved average came on the back of increased mobile financial services (MFS) subscriptions to 784.4 million and an increase in mobile-money agents in the country to 223,084.
Meanwhile, a new survey published at the end of July by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) backed Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) shows the continued stranglehold of the choice of cash against growing digitization.
Insights from the report quotes the frequency of mobile transactions per person at a flat 12 daily from 2016, with cash remaining predominant in the settlement of daily expenses and monthly bills.
While digital cash remains competitive on the clearance of less frequent payments such as remittances, Kenyans still hold on to cash to meet recurring expenses including the payments of school fees, goods and services.
tions in financial services.
