Kenyan battle for control of cash service heats up

The cost of transferring money is rapidly dropping in Kenya as service providers scramble for the millions of shillings in the pockets of people without bank accounts.

This rush to offer financial services to the unbanked is taking shape on two fronts.

There is the battle for control of the huge volumes of remittances that migrant workers send to their unbanked dependants and there is the race to use the mobile phone technology to hook Kenya to the global money transfer network.

Over the past two years, the mobile phone has become the top channel for money transfers in Kenya, giving a sluggish global financial services business a new lease of life expected to remain the driving force in the next decade.

But as the business of money transfer goes electronic, local mobile phone firms are keenly monitoring global financial service providers’ moves in the market.

Business Daily