(African Economic Research Consortium, Nairobi, 2023-06) Mbiti, Isaac; Weil, David N.
This paper updates and extends previous research that has looked at the roll-out of phone-based electronic money in East Africa. To the extent possible, we do parallel analyses for Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda, although, data limitations in the latter two countries severely limit our analysis. Where possible, we present data on the outstanding level of e-float, the magnitude of monthly customer-to-customer transfers, and the average size of person-to-persontransfers. In addition, we construct two measures of particular interest to monetary economists: the velocity of e-money and length of the “cash loop.”