Increased use of mobile phone-based money transfers to pay for goods and services is promising to activate electronic commerce – the multi-billion shilling industry whose take off in Kenya has been hampered by low usage of credit cards.

Analysts say mobile money platforms such as Safaricom’s M-pesa and Zain’s Zap are now poised to become game-changing agents on the payments scene just as they have upset the money transfer and micro-banking business.