NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, November 6, 2015

Only 1% of over 80,000 shoppers sampled in the 3rd quarter of this year used cards to pay for products they purchased online, 27 percent preferred to pay via mobile money transfer before or after delivery, while a whopping 72 percent preferred to pay in cash on delivery, according to an internal survey released by Kenyan e-tailer Jumia.

If the survey is anything to go by, what are Kenyans really using the total 14,707,736 cards 238,935 ATM Cards, 1,687,005 prepaid cards, 853 charge cards, 254,116 credit cards and 12,526,827 debit cards registered according to data from The Central Bank of Kenya for? Is the survey a reflection of the sad state of offline plastic money usage in Kenya? Or is it just online?

Parinaz Firozi, MD of Jumia Kenya, commented: “The low numbers are forgivable since most consumers were skeptical at first over online shopping forcing e-commerce companies to push for pay on delivery.”

Firozi further stressed that full adoption and use of plastic money in Kenya would require the joint efforts of financial institutions, the government and retailers, “I am optimistic of a positive shift in this trend as more and more outlets such as supermarkets, hotels, public transport continue to accept plastic money as a payment method and grow consumer confidence in the payment method.”

The story is even sadder for Hellofood, an online portal that allows consumers to order food from a restaurant of choice and have it delivered to their doorstep, as shared by managing director Duncan Muchangi.