The recent announcement by Zain that it would be charging its customer Ksh.10 to send money in all networks is proof on how competitive money transfer business has become in Kenya. The mobile money transfer in Kenya has stolen the limelight from the traditional money transfer heavy weights like Posta, Western Union and MoneyGram. Here is comparative rates for sending money in Kenya (Domestic Rates)
| MoneyGram | Western Union | ||||||
| Domestic Send Fee | Domestic Send? Fee | ||||||
| Send Amount (Ksh) | Send Fee
(Ksh) |
Send Amount (Ksh) | Send Fee(Ksh) | ||||
| From | To | Fro | To | ||||
| 4,000 | 300 | 0 | 7,500 | 650 | |||
| 4,000 | 8,000 | 480 | 7501 | 15,000 | 1,000 | ||
| 8,000 | 16,000 | 550 | 15,001 | 22,500 | 1,200 | ||
| 16,000 | 31,000 | 700 | 22,501 | 30,000 | 1,400 | ||
| 31,000 | 47,000 | 1,200 | 30,001 | 37,500 | 2,200 | ||
| 47,000 | 62,000 | 1,800 | 37,501 | 45,000 | 2,500 | ||
| 62,000 | 78,000 | 3,510 | 45,001 | 52,500 | 2,700 | ||
| 78,000 | 93,000 | 4,185 | 52,501 | 60,000 | 3,000 | ||
| 93,000 | 116,000 | 5,000 | 60,001 | 77,700 | 4050 | ||
| 116,000 | 140,000 | 5,600 | Revised Rates
|
||||
| 140,000 | 194,000 | 7,760 | |||||
| 194,000 | 388,000 | 11,640 | |||||
| 388,000 | 582,000 | 17,460 | |||||
| 582,000 | 777,000 | 23,310 | |||||
| Posta Pay | M-PESA (Safaricom) | ||||||
| Domestic Send Fee | Domestic Send Fee | ||||||
| Send Amount (Ksh) | Send Fee
(Ksh) |
Send? Amount (Ksh) | Send Fee
(Ksh) |
||||
| From | To | From | To | ||||
| 1 | 1000 | 75 | 0 | 35,000 | 30 | ||
| 1,001 | 2,500 | 100 | |||||
| 2,501 | 5,000 | 150 | Zap (Zain) | ||||
| 5,001 | 10,000 | 300 | Send money to any mobile network for only Ksh.10 | ||||
| 10,001 | 25,000 | 650 | |||||
| 25,001 | 50,000 | 1,200 | |||||
| 50,001 | 75,000 | 1,500 | |||||
| 75,001 | 100,000 | 2,500 | |||||
- For Zap, charges range from Sh20 for withdrawing between Sh50 and Sh2,500 to Sh140 for withdrawing Sh35,000. Customers of other mobile phone service providers are charged Sh30 extra when withdrawing.
- M-Pesa charges Ksh.25 for withdrawals
Apart from the low charges offered by by the Zap and M-PESA, the penetration of these money transfer services is amazing. For example in Nairobi, a walk between two Western Union offices there are more than 10 M-pesa agents in between and considerable Zap agents too. Zain hinted recently that currently they have ? 4,000 Zap agents spread out in the country.
M-banking
It is getting even better, last month Wells Fargo announced the addition of a new customer-to-customer money transfer service to is mobile banking offering. In the light of what happened with G4S whereby a lot of money were stolen by the security agents transporting the money to the bank, i think it is high time the Government consider safer way of transferring money to the banks.
Read about how the process of transporting money to the banks inconveniences the pedestrians by Shiko_Msa and how the money transfer in Kenya has evolved by Bankelele