Fuliza was introduced more than 2 years ago.
The overdraft facility has proved to be an integral part of Safaricom’s portfolio of M-PESA products, following the number of users who use it, and the revenues it has made for the carrier.
Specifically, in the last financial announcement by the operator for the first half of 2021/2022, Safaricom revealed that the facility has 1.7 million daily users.
Safaricom disbursed KES 242.6 billion in Fuliza, which is a 62.4% jump YoY.
The value of repayment stood at KES 240.2 billion, which is quite impressive because the product is self-regularized once a customer receives funds in their M-PESA wallets, effectively making it impossible to not pay the funds in such cases.
The repayment versus disbursement rate stood at 99.0 percent.
Furthermore, the average Fuliza taken by customers is KES 375, which is lower than the KES 478 from a year ago.
On the whole, Safaricom made KES 2.8 billion over the period under review.
However, Fuliza has always had its limitations: it is only applicable in two instances: when making bill payments and sending cash.
Now, Safaricom has announced that you can buy airtime using Fuliza.
This is a good development because the service could not let you do so before.
People have then been forced to use third-party airtime resellers to buy airtime for their or their friends’ phones.
For now, buying airtime if you have an outstanding Fuliza debt is possible (provided you have not exhausted your limit).
However, the service is only accessible via the STK menu. Safaricom apps, namely mySafaricom and M-PESA do not support this for now, although we are certain they will be updated to do so in the near future.
