According to the Financial Stability Report 2011, the number of card users has increased with credit card usage exhibiting the biggest growth from 2010.

"Payment cards industry continued to grow through 2011, with remarkable usage of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) cards, credit & debit cards, and Point of Sale (POS) terminals. ATM card transactions increased by 46.3% to 780,079 transactions in December 2011 from 533,155 transactions in December 2010. Credit and debit usage grew by 19.7% and 11.6% between the period 2010 and 2011," the report states.

The report further attributes the growth in card usage in the year 2011 factors like expansion of the retail payment industry, branch expansion by banks and investment in the acquisition of ATMs by banks among others.

[caption id="attachment_22120" align="aligncenter" width="646"] Value of Cards is in KES. Data sourced from www.centralbank.go.ke (Image; Pesatalk)[/caption]

The number of ATMs in the retail payment industry increased by 5.5% to 2,205 ATMs in December 2011 from 2,091 ATMs in December 2010  as the banking industry invested more in ATMs. Similarly, Credit and debit cards also recorded growth in the period increasing by 8.0% and 38.1% respectively. POS terminals declined by 8.7% to 16,604 terminals in December 2011 from 18,179 terminals in December 2010.

Also read [Debit vs Credit cards]