The number of Pochi la Biashara tills more than doubled in the 6 months to September, to 869,020 from 405,200 as of September last year.
The value of transactions via Pochi la Biashara increased by 226.6% to KSh 78.52 billion in the half year, steering the Pochi revenues up to KSh 0.9 billion from KSh 0.3 billion in 2023.Transactions grew 253% to 557.6 million from 157.9 million a year earlier with revenues contributing 3.4% to business payments.Launched in 2020, Pochi la Biashara is a business wallet that allows M-PESA registered customers who own informal businesses to receive and separate business funds from personal funds.
The ‘no reversals without consent’ nature of the Pochi service has increased the uptake, protecting them from fraudulent customers who took advantage of the reversal feature of the normal M-Pesa wallet transactions.
The number of Lipa na M-Pesa service tills almost stagnated at 658,700 as of September 2024, a mild 0.05% increase from 658,400 in September 2023. Despite the number of active customers on the M-Pesa visa card service increasing by 106% to 172,900, the value transacted decreased in the period to KSh 4 billion from KSh 6.2 billion over the same period in 2023.
In a report by the Central Bank of Kenya, about 68% of Kenyans were using mobile money transactions, cementing the growing need for cashless transactions in the country. In the latest Safaricom’s half year results, M-Pesa accounted for 43.5% of the service revenue.