At the start of the pandemic back in March 2022, the CBK announced that it had waived fees for sending money between mobile money wallets and bank accounts.
This allowed millions of Kenyans to send money to their friends and family without paying for transaction charges, even to the point where many Kenyans preferred that route, especially for high-volume transactions that would otherwise be costlier using mobile money channels, especially M-PESA.
Now, the CBK has revealed that this will no longer be the case because the charges have now been re-introduced.
It had been hinted that this development was on the way, following reports that Safaricom and its M-PESA platform were losing money from people who took full advantage of the waiver.
This even became more apparent when the telco released its HY Results 2023 just the other day; CEO Peter Ndegwa revealed that the charges would be back, but at a lower rate than it was before.
Charges
The revised maximum charges for transfers from bank accounts to mobile money wallet will be reduced by on average up to 61% and mobile money wallet to bank by on up to 47%.
Tariffs for paybills that are used to collect and disburse funds by businesses, companies, and institutions such as schools, utilities, and more will be reduced by on average 50%.
The charges levied by banks for bank-to-mobile money transactions will be reduced by an average of 45%.
The revised charges for bank-to-wallet and to-bank transactions will be announced by respective telcos and banks and will be effective from January 1, 2023.
Numbers
Since the charges were waived up to October 2022, the number of Kenyans using mobile money increased by over 6.2 million.
The monthly and Of P2P transactions increased from 162 million transactions worth KES 234 billion, to 440 million transactions worth KES 399 billion, an increase of 171% and 71% respectively.
The monthly volume and value of transactions between PSPs and banks increased from 18 million transactions worth about KES 157 billion, to over 113 million transactions worth KES 800 billion, an increase of 527 and 410%, respectively.
