Coverage: weekly note · Information to 7 April 2025
Originally Published as TGB Premium Intelligence
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TGB Weekly Research Note · 7 April 2025
Mobile money reached 82.3% of Kenyan adults in 2024, but uptake rose only 0.9 percentage points from 2021 while daily use more than doubled.
The desk view
The 2024 FinAccess Household Survey, led by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), puts mobile money usage at 82.3% of adults. The CBK's own launch presentation describes uptake as rising at a decreasing rate, with a gain of 0.9 percentage points since 2021. Intensity is a different story: daily use rose to 52.6% from 23.6% in 2021. Safaricom's figures point the same way, with M-PESA volumes growing far faster than active customers. The same survey shows bank usage rising to 52.5% from 44.1%, while mobile bank usage fell. Our reading is that Kenya's payments market has moved from an adoption story to a usage and monetisation story, and that the gains in formal access are now coming through banks and regulated credit as much as through mobile wallets.
Adoption has plateaued near saturation
The 2024 survey, conducted by the CBK with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and FSD Kenya, found mobile money usage at 82.3%, which it attributed to expanded services, improved infrastructure and greater use for government services and e-commerce. Formal financial access rose only modestly, to 84.8% from 83.7% in 2021, and 9.9% of adults remain excluded. The CBK's presentation of the results shows how sharply the adoption curve has flattened: uptake rose 33.7 percentage points between the 2009 and 2013 surveys, 9.8 points to 2016, 8.0 points to 2019, 2.0 points to 2021 and 0.9 points to 2024. The CBK said this pattern was consistent with supply-side data. The survey also found that mobile money, mobile bank and Fuliza moderated in growth, while uptake of bank accounts and SACCOs increased.
Adoption is also more even than before. The gender gap in mobile money usage narrowed to 1.8% from 5.2% in 2021. With most adults already on a wallet, further headline gains depend on reaching the excluded minority rather than on product innovation.
Mobile money uptake by survey year, % of adults
Source: Central Bank of Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey Launch Presentation, 3 December 2024.
Intensity, not reach, now drives value
Daily mobile money use more than doubled, to 52.6% of adults from 23.6% in 2021. Safaricom's results show the same shift at M-PESA. In the year ended 31 March 2024, M-PESA total transaction value rose 9.4% to KShs 39.39 trillion, while volumes grew 34.7% to 28.33 billion. One-month active M-PESA customers grew only 0.9% to 32.41 million. M-PESA revenue grew 19.4% to KShs 139.91 billion in that year, equal to 42.2% of its service revenue in Kenya. In the six months to 30 September 2024, transaction value rose 10.8% to KShs 20.84 trillion and volumes 30.6% to 17.09 billion, while active customers grew 4.1%. Chargeable transactions per active customer rose 25.6%.
Volume growing about 2.8 times as fast as value implies smaller average transactions, consistent with wallets being used for everyday purchases rather than occasional transfers. Merchant products support that reading: Pochi la Biashara tills more than doubled to 869.02 thousand, and merchant overdraft customers rose 72.9%. Monetisation has followed, with M-PESA revenue up 16.6% to KShs 77.22 billion, 43.5% of Safaricom's service revenue in Kenya.
Banks are gaining alongside wallets
The survey's provider data show banks gaining ground alongside mobile wallets rather than losing it.
Usage by provider, % of adults, 2021 and 2024
| Provider | 2021 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile money | 81.4 | 82.3 |
| Bank | 44.1 | 52.5 |
| Mobile bank | 34.4 | 32.6 |
| Fuliza overdraft | 18.3 | 18.4 |
| Microfinance, incl. digital credit | 1.7 | 8.8 |
Source: Central Bank of Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey Launch Presentation, 3 December 2024; Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and FSD Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey (main report), 3 December 2024.
Bank usage rose 8.4 percentage points between the two surveys, against 0.9 points for mobile money. The survey linked the bank gain to more access touch points and to programmes such as Inua Jamii. Mobile bank usage fell, and Fuliza was flat. The survey said regulation of digital credit providers contributed to microfinance usage rising to 8.8%, and 28.9% of respondents had used the Hustler Fund in the past 12 months, which is disbursed through select banks and facilitated by mobile money operators. Service quality remains a weak point. Among mobile money users, 21.1% reported system failures as a key issue and 9.8% reported losing money. For banks, the implication is that the contest has shifted from customer acquisition to reliability, credit and the merchant relationship, where wallet and bank rails increasingly overlap.
Primary sources: Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and FSD Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey (main report), 3 December 2024; Safaricom PLC, Condensed audited results for the year ended 31 March 2024 (FY24 press release), 9 May 2024; Central Bank of Kenya, 2024 FinAccess Household Survey Launch Presentation, 3 December 2024; Safaricom PLC, Unaudited results for the six months ended 30 September 2024 (HY25 press release), 7 November 2024.