Thanks to the growing popularity of cross-border dealing, M-Pesa cross-border transfers increase as transactions with Kenyan and non-Kenyan users have increased to US$ 289.69 billion. Global M-Pesa, a Safaricom service that enables registered M-Pesa customers to send and receive money from countries around the world, posted growth of 75.8 per cent in the financial year ending March Sh164.78 billion in the previous period.
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Safaricom records increase in revenue as M-Pesa cross-border transfers increase
Global M-Pesa has saved people the need to visit a bank or to pay to receive money from foreign countries such as the USA, the United Kingdom and Europe to receive it via mobile wallet. Safaricom found that M-Pesa’s global active customers grew by 49.1% from 552.16 million to 823.1 million over the review period for one month. The total volume of M-Pesa transactions grew 56.7% to 23.71 million, which showed greater utilization.
The telecom company said, “The service has continued to gain momentum and current partnerships include Western Union, MoneyGram, Ria, WorldRemit, Wave, Remitly, among others.”
M-Pesa cross-border transfers increase as the increase in the number and value of global transactions at M-Pesa brought Safaricom’s services revenues to 2.01 billion dollars from 1.32 billion dollars. Out of the 82.65 billion shillings earned by Safaricom over the review period, M-Pesas’ global revenue represented 2.4%.
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Safaricom operates the remittance service through Safaricom Money Transfer Services Limited in partnership with third party international money remittance providers. Revenue is earned from transaction fees charged to customers for international money transfers.
M-Pesa gives customers the liberty to make payments far beyond Kenya allowing them to participate in international e-commerce. Customers are charged Sh100 for transfers of up to Sh5,000 and Sh500 for transfers between Sh35,001 and Sh70,000.
Safaricom launched M-Pesa in 2007 and has been using the service to launch new services and innovate the existing ones, leading to increased usage. Started as a person-to-person cash transfer service, the platform has now grown to offer payments, credit, international remittances and business analysis and support.
The increased usage has translated to more earnings, with M-Pesa revenue overtaking voice revenue for the first time in the financial year ended March 2021.
Even though M-Pesa revenue declined (2.1 per cent) to Sh82.64 billion in the year ended March, it surpassed sales from voice which recorded a larger drop of 4.6 per cent to Sh82.55 billion. Safaricom chief executive Peter Ndegwa said last week that the mobile money platform’s dominance will increase in the coming years, reflecting its growth opportunities and the maturity of the voice business.
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