Safaricom cuts pay bill charges by half

Safaricom has halved pay bill charges as it seeks to incentivise the growth of payments between customers and merchants via its mobile-money platform M-Pesa.

The move is set to complement the recently announced lower charges on mobile-money wallets to bank account transfers from January 1 and which was announced by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

The revised pay bill tariffs which also kick in from January 1, 2023 will see Safaricom continue zero-rating the cost of payments of Ksh.100 and below.

Meanwhile, pay bill charges on transactions between Ksh.50,001 and Ksh.150,000 which represents the highest payment band on pay bills will cost Ksh.105 from the current Ksh.210 at present.

On the flip side, pay bill charges on business-to-customer payments will range between Ksh.5 and Ksh.12 in new tariffs from a maximum of Ksh.12.40 previously.

“In our role to continue supporting the economy and stimulating growth, we have taken the initiative to reduce significantly our pay bill and business-to-customer tariffs. This move reaffirms our commitment to support all our customers and enable them cost-effectively get along with their lives, especially this time when most Kenyans are experiencing hard economic times,” said Safaricom Plc CEO Peter Ndegwa.

M-Pesa to bank charges have been reduced by an average 47 per cent while bank to M-Pesa charges will fall by a mean-rate of 61 per cent according to CBK guidance from the start of next year.

The reduced M-Pesa to bank tariff is expected to apply to all M-Pesa pay bill payments that customers use for utilities such as electricity, hospital bills, schools and government payments.

In ensuring the affordability of M-Pesa as a payment service, Safaricom will be seeking to win back customers who had shunned making payments via mobile money over inhibitive costs.

In six months to the end of September, M-Pesa earnings from business payments including customer-to-business (C2B), business-to-customer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B) and Lipa na M-Pesa rose by 12.3 per cent to Ksh.12.6 billion.

The payments contributed to 2.6 per cent of M-Pesa’s overall 8.7 per cent revenue growth with total earnings by the mobile-money platform standing at Ksh.56.9 billion in the period.