Safaricom has been keen to grow M-Pesa into more than just a mobile money transfer service and in turn growing into a tool for financial inclusion. This saw Safaricom launch Lipa NA M-Pesa merchant service that allows individuals to pay for goods while at the same time, businesses can accept these payments.
Other moves have involved the launch of services such as M-Shwari and KCB M-Pesa account which not only allow individuals to save but to also access financial services on their mobile phones.
One of the barriers towards achieving this goal has been charges for transaction charges meted against small transactions. For instance, sending and withdrawal costs for transactions below 100/= were charged 10/=. For the common M-Pesa user, these charges may have an impact on their financial plans. To this end, Safaricom has announced the scrapping of M-Pesa charges for all transactions below 100/=. Safaricom says these transactions were worth 500 Million a year, an amount they have chosen to forego.
The same will apply to Lipa na M-Pesa merchant service. Dubbed M-Pesa kadogo, the service will target the lower tier M-Pesa users from owners of grocery stores to Boda Boda operators who transact these amounts. Safaricom is wary that some users may attempt to send large amounts of money by limiting each transaction at 100/= and then take advantage of this service.
To this end, Safaricom says they will cap the number of transactions one can perform using this window. Safaricom, however, did not specify how many transactions one can perform for a specific duration, or what metric this will play by.
The announcement of M-Pesa Kadogo comes at a time when the telco is working towards the rolling out of the Lipa Na M-Pesa card. The Lipa Na M-Pesa card will mirror an individual’s M-Pesa balance meaning whatever amounts are in your M-Pesa wallet are reflected in the card. The card is NFC enabled where a user can Tap and Go at the point of checkout when making purchases for goods and services. The plan for the telco is to provide merchants with point-of-sale terminals which are NFC enabled, where users can complete these transactions.
At last, some more give.
In my opinion, Safaricom has just been taking taking taking, with little giving.
[…] for the period ended 30th September 2016, Safaricom also announced the launch of M-Pesa Kadogo. With M-Pesa Kadogo, the firm scrapped all charges related to both mobile money transfer and Lipa Na M-Pesa for […]
[…] M-Pesa kadogo’s limit from Ksh. 100 to Ksh. 200 for Lipa Na M-Pesa Buy Goods option. M-Pesa Kadogo which was announced in October 2016, allows customers to transact for free for any amounts below […]
[…] The company also revealed that for the past ten years, over 184 billion shillings have been transacted over M-Pesa, up from 83 million shillings back in 2006. 1.2 million people check their M-Pesa statements regularly and the company is said to have dropped peer-to-peer transaction charges by 9%, referring to M-Pesa Kadogo. […]
[…] Vodafone M-pesa and similar services, might be used for under INR 1000 transactions like https://techweez.com/2016/11/04/m-pesa-kadogo/ eg; below INR 67 transaction free in Africa. Which has following benefits : –a) M-Pesa is a […]
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