Safaricom has done it again! Seen a business opportunity where no one saw. Well, we have been all merry on the new convergence of banks and telcos that has made banking more convenient and easy away from the queue tradition that we all would do anything to get over and done with.
In a recent partnership between Safaricom and Standard chattered, M-pesa was hailed as a positive disruption that has brought better days to the financial services space by provising solutions to common day problems faced by common banking customers.
These financial institutions today add up to 190, 30 being banks and 160 being other financial institutions. The many institutions have been riding on M-PESA, a service that serves millions of people that have seen the company record billions of withdrawals and deposits.
Starting 1st of December, these institutions will no longer enjoy the platform for free or for whatever small commission this banks were parting with. Safaricom has come out in a statement to notify parties involved on the new charges that have been termed as a new service and not a revision of any existing charges.
Here is a statement by Safaricom on the Formalization of the Bank- to- many transactions
“In line with technological advancements, a number of Banks and Financial Institutions are now using the existing M-PESA infrastructure to extend the transfer of funds from customers’ bank accounts to third party M-PESA wallets (Bank-to-Many).
This service, like any other service on our platform, will attract charges. The charges that we will implement are similar to what applies for P2P M-PESA transactions (sending M-PESA from one customer to another).
We have already and received the requisite approvals from the Central Bank of Kenya. Subsequently, we have written to our partner Banks and Financial Institutions notifying these charges. This is a new service, and not a revision of any existing charges.
However, these charges will now come into effect on 1st December 2015. This will allow Banks and Financial Institutions ample time to communicate to their customers about the service.”
Stephen Chege
Director- Corporate Affairs
