The Central Bank of Kenya recently announced that it will not extend the waiver of fees on mobile money transfers below Ksh. 1,000 and that it would end on 31st December 2020 following a consultation it held with Payment Service Providers (PSPs). It noted that there were significant increases in mobile money usage, especially M-PESA over the period the measures have been in place, demonstrating that they were timely and effective. The regulator said it will propose pricing structures that reflect ANNEX — a pricing guide that it has introduced to support the development of an efficient, safe and stable payments and mobile money ecosystem where the customer and public interests are adequately protected.
Safaricom has now announced revised tariffs for the mobile money transfer, M-PESA that will take effect immediately after the waiver ends on 31st. It says the CBK had been an instrumental guide in the formulation of these new tariffs. Under the CBK’s Principles on the Pricing of Mobile Money Services, Safaricom has reduced M-PESA charges by up to 45% for lower value transaction bands saying this was a consideration of the expiry of the period for the zero-rated M-PESA transactions and the ongoing efforts to recover from COVID-19 economic downturns.
These tariff reductions will affect more than 90 percent of all customer transactions when sending money. It will now cost KES 6 to send between KES 101 and KES 500, down from KES 11. Transactions between KES 1,501 and KES 2,500 will cost KES 32 down from KES 41.
All transactions of KES 100 and below will remain free. In addition, all M-PESA customers will continue to enjoy free transactions between M-PESA and bank accounts. The price cuts are permanent, effective 1st January 2021, and will enable more than 26.8 million customers to continue enjoying lower costs whenever they send money.
The new reduced tariffs will equally apply to transactions for micro-Businesses under our new Pochi La Biashara service, and for Lipa Na M-PESA businesses using the Transacting Till to make payments.
See the new M-PESA Tariffs below:
Read Also: Reminder: Free mobile money transfers will end on 31st December
