Safaricom to Waive Merchant Fees for Transactions Below KSh 1000  

Kenya’s telco Safaricom Plc will waive merchant fees on its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa for transactions below Ksh1,000 according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

Dr Patrick Njoroge, the CBK Governor on Friday in an apology to a response on why merchants were left out of the free transaction waiver of sending and receiving up to KSh1,000 through M-Pesa.

“The waiver of charges for transactions below 1K was inadvertently left out for merchants during implementation by Safaricom. This will be rectified. Sincere apologies,” said Dr Njoroge.

In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, CBK had directed mobile operators and financial institutions to adjust their mobile money products to cushion their users.

However, according to Tai (@TonwaTai) merchants were excluded.

All pay bill numbers continue to attract the same fees as before. 

“So, the MPESA charges were only to be effected for ONLY personal accounts? The SMEs are not suffering in this season Dr. Njoroge and State House? This is ridiculous. As an SME you are be charged for every MPESA transaction to or from your account,” Tweeted Tai.

M-Pesa charges KSh15 for transfer of up to KSh1,000 to registered M-Pesa users and KSh49 for unregistered users, and KSh28 for withdrawals.

Safaricom in a statement had said in their meeting with the regulator, it was agreed that all person-to-person transactions below Ksh1,000 shall be free over the next 90 (ninety) days.

“To support this, and in particular small and micro business enterprises (SMEs), CBK has also approved the increase of daily M-PESA transaction limits from the current Ksh70,000 to Ksh150,000. Kenyans will also be able to transact up to Ksh300,000 up from the current limit of Ksh140,000, and hold up to Ksh300,000 in their M-PESA wallets,” Michael Joseph, Chief Executive Officer, Safaricom PLC sad March 16.