About eight in 10 workers are unable to send cash to their relatives in rural Kenya in the wake of the Covid-19 economic hardships, says a new survey, which reveals that majority of households have not felt the impact of the reduction in VAT from 16 to 14 percent.

About 72 percent of the respondents said households had not seen a drop in product prices after the VAT drop in April 1.

Kenya already had a high age dependency ratio of about 82 percent before the pandemic.

Daily average mobile money transactions for deals above Sh1,000 each dropped 18.4 percent in the period Kenya imposed Coronavirus movement restrictions, underlining the impact of the infectious disease on workers and the cash flow of businesses.

Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) data shows that the daily average mobile transactions for high-value deals dropped to Sh5.57 billion between April 20 and May 10 compared to Sh6.83 billion before March 16—just four days after Kenya announced its first Covid-19 case.