Kenya’s mobile services operator Safaricom has announced revised charges which will take effect on 1st October 2022. The revised rates will affect loan borrowers and fuliza.
Fuliza users who fuliza less than sh 1000 will not be charged interest for the first three days of borrowing.
| Ksh | Old Tariff (Per Day) | New Tariff (Per Day) |
| 0-100 | Ksh 0 | Ksh 0 |
| 101-500 | Ksh 5 | Ksh 3 |
| 50-1000 | Ksh 12 | Ksh 6 |
| 1001-1500 | Ksh 20 | Ksh 18 |
| 1501-2500 | Ksh 25 | Ksh 20 |
| 2501-70000 | Ksh 30 | Ksh 30 |
The safaricom CEO Ndegwa today said that the changes would cumulatively lead to a 50 per cent overall reduction in Fuliza tariffs.
“This establishes Fuliza as the most accessible and affordable credit facility at only one per cent of the transaction value,” Ndegwa said.
Fuliza, is an M-Pesa service that allows customers to overdraw on their M-Pesa account when they have insufficient funds to complete a transaction, was launched in 2019, in a partnership involving Safaricom, NCBA Group, and the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group.
Recently there has been an outcry that the system has gotten many Kenyans into bad debt with millions of Kenyans blacklisted with the credit reference bureau (CRB) because of Fuliza.
Today’s statement by Safaricom to reduce fees charged on Fuliza has been received as good news with Kenyans feeling positive that it will go a long way in helping Kenyans who are struggling to make ends meet.
Kenyan Heavily Dependent On Fuliza Mobile Overdraft Service
Kenyan are heavily dependent on the fuliza overdraft system with data showing that between December and January Kenyans using the mobile overdraft fuliza borrowed Sh 1.58 billion ( USD 12 million) daily.
With a total of 1.7 million daily users on the system who use it for everything from food, bus fare and rent.
