BUSINESS CORNER M-Pesa tops 34 banks in global cash transfers list Safaricom is edging towards ranking among Kenya’s top 10 largest international money transfer agents, beating 34 commercial banks in market share terms, less than five years since its foray into the cross-border cash remittance business. The latest Central Bank of Kenya money transfer data for up to August shows the telecommunications firm now handles slightly more than four per cent of all cash remitted to Kenya from foreign countries. International M-Pesa cash transfers totaled Sh3.39 billion ($38.03 million) between January and August this year, ranking the mobile cash platform eleventh with a market share of 4.06 per cent. Safaricom is riding on the popularity and vast agent network of its mobile money platform M-Pesa to win a bigger share of Kenya’s diaspora inflows, which grew 11 per cent to top Sh83.5 billion ($936.03 million) as per the CBK data to the end of August. Safaricom has in recent months signed up five additional global money transfer providers to allow Kenyans abroad send money directly to its customers’ M-Pesa accounts. Safaricom has signed partnership deals with Australia-based mHITs, British firm SkyForex, PostFinance of Switzerland, London-based provider Xendpay and Mapex to offer direct cash transfers to M-Pesa customers abroad. The new partnership agreements are in addition to earlier deals signed with remittance channels such as Western Union, Xpress Money, Skrill iT and WorldRemit. Wayforward. accumulate Safaricom shares before they hit sh20. Curretly at sh12.90 (Business Daily, Time To Move Investment)
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 13:30:57 +0000