Kenya’s mobile money subscriptions rose to 54 million by June 2026, underlining the continued expansion of digital payments across the country.
Latest sector statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) show that subscriptions increased from 53.4 million in March to 54 million at the end of June, representing growth of 1.2% within three months. This translated to about 637,000 additional subscriptions during the quarter.
Compared with the same period a year earlier, mobile money subscriptions were up 13.2%.
The growth pushed mobile money penetration to 101.3%, from 100.1% in the previous quarter, reflecting the widespread use of multiple mobile money accounts among Kenyan consumers.
Safaricom retains dominant market share
Safaricom remained the dominant player in the mobile money market, accounting for 88.8% of all subscriptions as of June 2026.
According to the CA figures, Safaricom had 47.85 million mobile money subscriptions during the quarter, reinforcing the scale of M-PESA within Kenya’s payments ecosystem.
The figures come as mobile money continues to play an increasingly important role in everyday payments, business transactions and the broader digital economy.
Mobile money-related services are also becoming an important revenue driver for telecommunications companies.
CA data shows that “other service revenue” — which includes mobile money, roaming, bulk SMS and airtime credit services — accounted for 42.8% of total mobile service revenue in 2025, making it the largest revenue category within the mobile services segment.
Overall mobile service revenues increased by 3.6% to KSh 440.9 billion in 2025, highlighting the growing contribution of digital and value-added services beyond traditional voice and data.
The latest numbers show just how deeply mobile money has become embedded in Kenya’s economy, with subscriber growth continuing even as the market approaches near-universal adoption.
For Safaricom, the numbers further demonstrate the scale of the M-PESA ecosystem, which supports millions of consumers and businesses across payments and other digital financial services.
