Kenyans Mobile Money Use Unshaken By Higher Taxes

Kenyans defied higher taxes on mobile money transactions to post a 4.7 percent surge in use in October, a latest report from the apex bank released on Wednesday shows.

NAIROBI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Dec, 2018 ) :Kenyans defied higher taxes on mobile money transactions to post a 4.7 percent surge in use in October, a latest report from the apex bank released on Wednesday shows.

The east African nation citizens' mobile money transactions stood at 343.2 billion shillings (3.36 billion U.S. dollars) in October, up from 3.21 billion Dollars in September, according to data from the Central Bank of Kenya.

The October transactions are the second highest this year, according to the central bank, with Kenyans having moved 3.42 billion dollars in August before the taxes were imposed.

In bid to shore up its revenue, the government in July increased excise duty on mobile money services from 10 percent to 12 percent.

The taxes were further raised in September when parliament passed the Finance Bill, increasing charges from 12 percent to 20 percent.

Kenya has 30 million mobile money subscribers, according to the Communication Authority of Kenya, with the number continuing to grow.

Last week, thousands of Kenyans were stranded for hours at supermarkets, petrol stations and hotels when Mpesa, a mobile money service run by leading telecom Safaricom, experienced outage for hours.