The value of payments made through cards grew by Sh1.64 billion in the first three months of the year as the Covid-19 pandemic discourage cash handling.
CARD PAYMENTS DURING CORONA
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that transactions via credit, debit cards and point-of-sale (PoS) machines hit Sh165.56 billion in the first quarter of 2020 compared to Sh163.91 billion of the same period last year.
The number of deals settled through cards, however, dropped to 17.98 million in the first quarter of the year amid virus-fuelled demand slump, compared to 23.95 million in 2019 during the period.
The drop in deals coincides with a decline in the value of transactions by 20 percent to Sh52.11 billion in March compared to Sh64.98 billion same month last year.
Similarly, the number of transactions in the month dropped to 5.69 million from 5.70 million and 6.59 million transactions recorded in February and January respectively, this also a drop from 7.82 million transactions in March 2019.
