Safaricom’s mobile money service, M-Pesa, saw a drop in its agent numbers for the first time, with over 8,300 agents shutting down this year. Many agents have been switching to rival telco Airtel, partly due to Safaricom’s new geo-locking security feature.
The geo-locking system is designed to prevent fraud by limiting agents to operate only within specific geographical areas. If agents move their terminals outside their assigned zones, the system automatically deactivates their access.
Safaricom stated that the new anti-fraud feature led to a decrease of 8,344 agents, representing around 3% of its total agent base. The number of agents dropped from 270,360 to 262,016 this year.
“We experienced a decline in active agent numbers due to the introduction of geo-locking for tills,” Safaricom stated in its report.
Though the decline in agent numbers brings operational challenges, Safaricom views it as a worthwhile trade-off. The company claims the measure has “effectively curtailed fraud” and boosted regulatory compliance. Cases of till theft and asset misappropriation reportedly have reportedly dropped to zero.
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As M-Pesa agents shifted to other telcos, the overall mobile money sector saw minimal impact, with a net decrease of 873 agents across all providers. This trend indicates that Airtel and T-Kash have expanded their agent networks during this period.
Growth in key metrics, including subscriptions, transaction volumes, and total transaction values, further exhibits Kenya’s mobile money industry’s resilience. This continued expansion indicates that while M-Pesa may have lost some agents the underlying demand for mobile money services continues to increase.
