As the Corona Virus pandemic continues to eat away at the profits of most companies leaving a trail of losses in its wake, the Central Bank of Kenya has released data showing a massive drop in mobile transactions for bountiful amounts.
In the report, Telecommunications giant, Safaricom is experiencing an 18.4% loss which equates to a staggering 1.2 billion loss daily in mobile transactions above 1000 between April 20 and May 10. This is said to be a result of restrictions of movement in the country.
The serial drop has cut the overall worth of mobile transactions by 4.7% an equal to Sh.370 million. This is because transactions above 1000 account for 72% of all transactions. The onset of the Covid-19 epidemic saw Safaricom waive charges for transactions below 1000 to ease the resulting burden of dealing with the virus.
As it stands, the company has recorded 83% that is 1.98 billion daily spirals in transactions below Sh. 1000 but not even that is enough to counterbalance the drop in high-value deals. The biggest drop was for transactions of between Sh35, 001 and Sh70, 000, which fell 35.7 percent to Sh819 million. It was followed by deals between Sh1, 001 and Sh10, 000, which dropped 32.4 percent to Sh2.45 billion.
Safaricom is bracing a financial crunch as a result of job losses, little business, and unpaid leaves experienced by 70% of Kenyans.
