The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has reintroduced charges on transactions between mobile money wallets and bank accounts which had been waived on March 16, 2020.
Through a statement by CBK, the new charges are significantly lower and will apply after January 1, 2023.
Following consultations with CBK, the payment service providers (PSPs) and banks have nevertheless agreed to revise the maximum charges on the transactions.
The revised maximum charges for transfers from bank accounts to mobile money wallets will be reduced by an average of 61 per cent while mobile wallets to bank accounts charges will fall by an average of 47 percent.
Tariffs for paybills that are used to collect and disburse funds by businesses, companies and institutions such as schools and utilities will meanwhile be reduced by an average of 50 per cent.
Additionally, charges levied by banks for bank-to-mobile money transactions will be reduced by an average of 45 percent.
“The revised charges for bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank transactions will be announced by respective payment service providers (PSPs) and banks and will be effective from January 1, 2023,” the CBK stated.
CBK further stated that the number of Kenyans using mobile money increased by over 6.2 million since the charges were waived up prompted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The monthly volume and value of person-to-person (P2P) transactions increased from 162 million transactions worth Sh234 billion to 440 million transactions valued at Sh399 billion an increase of 171 percent and 71 percent respectively.
The monthly volume and value of transactions between PSPs and banks increased from 18 million transactions worth Sh157 billion to over 113 million transactions worth Sh800billion, an increase of 527 percent and 410 percent respectively.
