Safaricom has expanded the value of mobile money transfers under its M-pesa platform by 4.45, latest industry data shows, as the company continues to lead in the mobile money market.

The value of money transacted on M-pesa in the first quarter of the 2016/17 financial year (July to September) was Sh851.07 billion, up from Sh807.09 billion in the previous quarter.

The Communication Authority of Kenya data released on Thursday shows Safaricom’s mobile money transactions stood at 326.8 million as of September 2016, accounting for 81.58 per cent of the total mobile money transactions in the country.

During the quarter under review a total of 400.6 million transactions were made valued at over Sh1 trillion.

“The total number of mobile money subscriptions and mobile money agents were recorded at 31.0 million and 169,698 respectively during the quarter under review. The period also recorded 247.9 million mobile commerce transactions amounting to Sh447.3 billion. The total value of person to person transfers during the quarter was valued at Sh474.5 billion,” the report stated.

The giant telco posted a 20.74 per cent increase in mobile money transfer subscriptions during the period, closing at 20.67 million subscriptions from up from 17.12 million in the previous quarter.

Safaricom increase its M-Pesa agents by 5.88 per cent to 114,282 agents from 107,936 in the previous quarter.

Equitel however was the fastest growing mobile money platform posting a 58.11 per cent increase in value of transactions, which grew to Sh219.03 billion from Sh138.53 billion in the previous quarter. It comes second after Safaricom.

Equitel’s mobile money transfer subscriptions rose by 12.37 per cent to post 2.09 million subscriptions during the period under review from 1.86 million.

Airtel money came in third with its mobile money transactions valued at Sh10.82 billion during the period under review. This was a 0.64 per cent dip as the firm’s transactions were valued at Sh10.89 billion in the previous quarter.

“Airtel posted a 20.82 per cent increase in mobile money transfer subscriptions which stood at 5.86 million from 4.85 million subscriptions in the previous quarter”.