Mobile Payments in Kenya: Findings from a Survey of M-PESA Users and Agents

This report summarizes the findings of field research by Central Bank of Kenya, Financial Sector Deepening, Kenya and CGAP on users' and agents' experiences with M-PESA in Kenya and Safaricom's M-PESA user data. It presents key findings from household and agent surveys.The household survey focused on M-PESA users, patterns of use, sending and receiving money through M-PESA, losses and delays experienced with M-PESA, experiences with M-PESA agents and customer care, among other things. It revealed that most early adopters of M-PESA already have a bank account and use M-PESA as a complement to existing financial services. Most users rated M-PESA as faster, more convenient, safer and cheaper than their previous national money transfer service.The survey of M-PESA agents focused on general information, E-float and cash management, agent service and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and impact of M-PESA on liquidity, profitability, fraud and security. The paper presents the following recommendations, based on survey results:

• Agent training and incentives to ensure that they meet certain minimum standards and comply with the agent agreement;
• Monitoring of agents' performance, independent of any complaints from users;
• Consumer information campaign aimed at existing users;
• Complaints monitoring;
• Improved complaints process.