Yesterday I attended Google Kenya’s Finance Summit for Agencies and Financial Services Businesses in Kenya where they shared key insights and data points on how digital consumers in Kenya are engaging with financial services across the board. I found the information shared to be most illuminating and compelling which is the basis for this blog post. For instance, consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Spend 1/3 of their waking hours on mobile devices. Basically, in summary, Kenyans as expected are very switched and capable when it comes to their fluency with a myriad of digital financial services at scale including mobile money with the Safaricom’s M-Pesa leading the way for most consumers.

Google provided insights from a survey they conducted this month in June 2022 targetting Kenyan consumers but also went as far as collating other relevant digital financial services insights from other credible sources. In a nutshell, the insights shared here are holistic and should be of great interest to anyone involved in Kenya’s banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors in terms of understanding where the Kenyan consumer is today and how this may impact their digital transformation agenda going forward.

Mobile App Downloads in Kenya – App Annie Insights

1 in 3 Kenyan financial services users make purchases online or pay bills online and 72% have mobile money accounts post-pandemic – IPSOS

Digital payments in Kenya’s finance industry are expected to grow from US$ 7.5B in 2022 to US$ 10.7B by 2026 whilst Kenya’s fintech sector is expected to grow 24% year on year (YoY) for the next 5 years and digital payments will become 63% of market share – Statista

Google ran a consumer survey in Kenya from 2nd June to 20th June 2022 on websites within the Google Surveys Publisher Network targeting audiences in Kenya using financial services. The survey had 1,454 respondents and 504 responses from financial services customers in Kenya. Here are some of the findings from the same:

3 in 5 Kenyans use at least one financial service frequently.

• Mobile banking and payments – 36%.
• Current and saving account – 20%.
• Heath and Insurance – 14.6%.
• Credit Cards and loans – 9.7%.
• Motor Insurance – 9.5%.
• Investments (bonds, stocks, etc) – 8.6%.

Mobile and internet banking customers in Kenya make up 65% of all frequent financial services users in Kenya.

• 60.3% use mobile money or Safaricom’s M-Pesa to access financial services.
• 38.7% use mobile banking apps.
• 25.8% use internet banking.
• 19.3% use USSD / short code banking.
• 15.6% use physical bank branches
• 7.1% use WhatsApp-based banking services

Most Kenyan financial services users use Safaricom’s M-Pesa in conjunction with either a mobile banking app or Internet banking service.70% use mobile apps for payments, remittances, investments, and loans. Local and international payments are major attractions for digital financial services consumers in Kenya.

• 22.8% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of the ability to open an account.
• 11.6% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of having access to credit or debit cards.
• 23.9% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of being able to access international money transfers.
• 30.7% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of being able to access local money transfers.
• 40% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of being able to access payments.
• 24.8% choose a digital financial services provider on the basis of being able to access customer support.
• International money transfers are most popular with freelancers whilst debit/credit card requests are most popular with employed Kenyans.

Convenience is a major consideration for internet and mobile banking consumers in Kenya when choosing a digital financial services provider!

• 27.6% of survey respondents indicated that convenience is a major factor when choosing a mobile or internet banking service.
• 20.1% of survey respondents chose their internet or mobile banking service or the basis of the brand reputation and trust of the service provider.
• 19% of survey respondents chose their internet or mobile banking service on the basis of better benefits or advantages of their service offerings.
• 18.6% of survey respondents chose their internet or mobile banking service on the basis of lower prices or charges to use the services.
• 14.5% of survey respondents chose their internet or mobile banking service on the basis of having a good user experience (UX).

More than 50% of all financial services customers indicated that they are willing to change their service provider indicating that there is no loyalty in this regard.

• 35.2% of the survey respondents considered themselves to be very loyal to their financial services provider.
• 30.9% of the survey respondents considered themselves to be somewhat loyal to their financial services provider.
• 14.7% of the survey respondents considered themselves to be neither loyal nor disloyal to their financial services provider.
• 8% of the survey respondents considered themselves to be somewhat not loyal to their financial services provider.
• 3.7% of the survey respondents considered themselves to be not loyal at all to their financial service provider.
• 7.6% of the survey respondents couldn’t say what they thought of their financial services provider.

The user experience (UX) of financial services mobile apps is key for re-engagement as users will reuse apps that have the most seamless UX.

• 20.6% of survey respondents said that pricing and discounts were factors that led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.
• 18.5% of survey respondents said that brand loyalty was a factor that led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.
• 37.4% of survey respondents said that seamless experience led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.
• 11.1% of survey respondents said that push notifications led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.
• 4.3% of survey respondents said that ads within the mobile app led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.
• 8.2% of survey respondents said that digital ads on Google and YouTube led them to reuse their preferred financial services mobile app.

40% of all customers in Kenya saw Google and YouTube as their main platforms for discovering banking and insurance products and services:

• 31.7% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through Google Search.
• 16.2% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through Word of Mouth (WoM)
• 16% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through friends and family.
• 15.8% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
• 10.3% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through TV and Billboards.
• 8.4% of survey respondents discovered their most recently downloaded financial services products or services through videos on YouTube.

Demand for financial services as seen on Google Search in Kenya is growing in terms of search volume – Google Search Data.

• Google search volume for banking services in Kenya is growing 17% year on year (YoY).
• Google search volume for credit and lending services in Kenya is growing 17% year on year (YoY).
• Google search volume for insurance services in Kenya is growing 22% year on year (YoY).
• Searches for financial services mobile apps on the Google Play store is growing at a consistent average of 21% year on year (YoY).

Demand for banking and insurance YouTube videos in Kenya grew 29% and 14% respectively on a year-on-year (YoY) basis – Tubular Labs from January 2021 to April 2022:

• According to Tubular there were approximately 10M views for finance-related bios on YouTube in Kenya.
• General finance videos on YouTube had 9.5M views in Kenya.
• Banking and loans videos on YouTube had 3M views in Kenya.
• Financial planning and life insurance videos on YouTube had 594K views in Kenya.
• Investment videos on YouTube had 404K views in Kenya.
• Stock market videos on YouTube had 60.5K views in Kenya.

Google’s Advertising platforms in Kenya have the following opportunities in terms of reach on a monthly basis:

• 20M searches per month on Google Search.
• 3.4B impressions on YouTube.
• 30K mobile app installs.
• 9.4B impressions on Google Display Network (GDN)