Airtel Kenya has announced that they have stripped away transaction fees on their mobile money platform for a specified period.
According to the company, this means that it is possible for Kenyans to send and receive money for free on Airtel Money starting tomorrow (March 17 2020). They will waive all person to person transaction fees on all the bands for Airtel Money customers for the next 90 days.
The decision to do this was thanks to the President appealing to mobile money operators to consider reducing mobile transaction costs to customers during the coronavirus pandemic. Airtel had met with the Central Bank of Kenya and other industry players that led to this decision.
Following Central Bank’s guidelines, they have also raised the daily transaction limit from Kshs 70,000 to Kshs 150,000 and increased the daily limit from Kshs 140,000 to kshs 300,000. They have also waived charges for transfers made from Airtel money wallet to the bank account.
In addition to waiving fees on transactions, they have also set up a toll-free line (719) which will be used by Kenyans to access information and updates about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike Telkom and Safaricom who decided to wave transaction costs below Kshs 1000, the decision by Airtel to waive fees on all bands is major. This is great news for Airtel users and Airtel Money users who will enjoy these free transfers for the next 90 days on the network.
