Kenyans abroad send back $1 billion in 2012

Dollar inflows from Kenyans working in the United States and Canada were the main contributors to record remittances for the east African country last year, which cross the $1 billion mark.

Data from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that Kenyans abroad sent $1.17 billion in 2012, a 31 per cent increase on 2011.

"The sustained increase resulted to a 31.4 per cent growth in remittance inflows from $891.1 million in 2011 to $1.2 billion in the full year of 2012, an indication of resilience in remittance inflows to Kenya despite the weak global economy,” CBK said in a statement.

The North American region, whose economy is still recovering, accounted for nearly half of these inflows, followed by Europe which shares similar economic woes.

Diaspora remittances, along with tourism, tea and horticulture are among Kenya's leading foreign exchange earners.

Meanwhile deposits into money transfer systems offered by Kenyan mobile phone companies rose by 75.33 per cent in the nine months to September last year, hitting the highest amount since the industry regulator started tracking the numbers.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) Monday said phone users deposited Sh205 billion ($2.38 billion) into mobile money transfer systems of the country's four operators, compared to Sh117.36 billion ($1.36 billion) deposited over a similar period in 2011.

Easier services

The growth was partly attributed to an increase in the number of agents working for the telcos, making it easier to access services.

CCK said that the number of agents countrywide stood at 54,409 as at the end of September last year compared to 44,922 at the end of September 2011.

The ease of using mobile money applications had also helped to grow the value of money and increased the use of the mobile money systems.

“This growth indicates that the mobile money transfer service has become a key payments and transaction tool, mainly due to its easy use of applications, convenience and low-cost value propositions,” said CCK in the report.

The CCK data, however, does not capture total transfers and all mobile money operators which include those that do not offer voice services such as Mobikash and Tangaza.

This data is tracked by CBK and in the nine months to September, the banking regulator’s data shows that total transfers rose by 34.76 per cent to Sh1.117.98 trillion ($1.37 trillion) compared to Sh829.62 billion transferred as at the end of September 2011.

CCK said that the number of mobile money transfer subscriptions rose marginally by 4.9 per cent to 19.31 million as at September last year from 18.4 million over similar period in 2011.

www.businessdailyafrica.com