M-PESA is part of Kenyans now because the majority of locals use Safaricom services (the telco has more than 64 percent market share). The product was launched in 2007 and has become very powerful.
It commands 99.9 percent of the Kenya mobile money space, and this has been disputed by its rivals and industry experts. The groups say that M-PESA has an obvious market dominance, and there has been a push to spilt the product from Safaricom so that it can be run as a different non-telco entity.
Today, we have also learned that Treasury is planning to slash M-PESA charges, which, according to a consensus, are too high. High charges are hurtful to businesses and many Kenyans who are just trying to make ends meet.
Will this lobby by the Treasury pull through?
In the same spirit, products like T-Kash have been around for some time too. It is owned by Telkom Kenya, but it is not used as often as possible for obvious reasons. Its charges are also substantially lower than what M-PESA charges.
Unlike Airtel Money that costs free among its customers, T-Kash charges the same amount for sending to to T-Kash customers and those on other networks.
Here are T-Kash charges for 2022:
Min | Max | Send to T-Kash and Other Networks | Send to Unregistered User | Agent Withdrawal Fees |
1 | 49 | FREE | N/A | N/A |
50 | 100 | FREE | N/A | 10 |
101 | 500 | 5 | 36 | 26 |
501 | 1,000 | 12 | 41 | 26 |
1,001 | 1,500 | 20 | 46 | 26 |
1,501 | 2,500 | 32 | 61 | 26 |
2,501 | 3,500 | 45 | 93 | 48 |
3,501 | 5,000 | 55 | 120 | 65 |
5,001 | 7,500 | 65 | 145 | 80 |
7,501 | 10,000 | 85 | 190 | 105 |
10,001 | 15,000 | 90 | 245 | 155 |
15,001 | 20,000 | 90 | 265 | 175 |
20,001 | 35,000 | 100 | 285 | 185 |
35,001 | 50,000 | 100 | N/A | 265 |
50,001 | 150,000 | 100 | N/A | 295 |