The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Wednesday announced that it has extended the waiver on mobile money fees for transactions of Sh1,000 and below until the end of the year.
CBK said the emergency measures that were made due to the Covid-19 epidemic will remain in place from July 1, 2020, until December 31, 2020.
Additionally, the bank said the current tariff for transactions of above Sh70,000 will remain.
There will also be no charge by payment service providers and commercial banks for transfers between mobile money wallets and bank accounts.
Following the March 16 announcement by CBK of measures to facilitate increased use of mobile money transactions instead of cash, a significant increase in the use of mobile money channels by individuals in both value and number of transactions has been realised.
“Most of the increase was in low-value transactions of Sh1,000 or less, which has helped cushion most vulnerable households,” said CBK in a statement.
According to CBK, more than 1.6 million additional customers are now using mobile money channels. However business-related transactions have declined marginally.
CBK had pushed banks and telcos to adjust prices because of the economic slowdown caused by the global coronavirus pandemic after President Uhuru Kenyatta asked them to consider reducing costs of transactions to allow customers use cashless modes of payment as part of the measures to prevent the transmission of Covid-19.
The 90-day deal with the government lapsed last week and Safaricom, which owns M-Pesa, says it is awaiting direction from CBK on the free services.
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