Discount on Safaricom Fuliza Charges
Anthony Kamau
Safaricom has announced to cut daily charges for fuliza loans below Sh1000 by 40 percent which translates daily charges from Sh 10 to Sh 6. Borrowers will also enjoy a three-day waiver period. However, the access fee remains at 1%.
Photo Courtesy
In a joint announcement on Wednesday, 28 September, the telecommunication alongside her partner banks KCB and NCBA, loans between 100-500 will attract 3% charge down from the current 5%.
The overdraft service was launch by Safaricom in 2019 and is underwritten by NCBA Group and KCB Group.
Fuliza enables M-PESA customers to complete your M-PESA transactions when they have insufficient funds in their M-PESA account. They can access funds multiple times as long as they are within their Fuliza limit.
Larger amounts however, will still attract higher charges. Fuliza loans between Ksh. 1,501 to Ksh. 2,500 will be charged a daily rate Ksh. 20, down from Ksh. 25 and beyond KSh. 2500 to KSh. 70,000 has been lowered from Sh30 daily to Sh25.
The discounted tariff will take effect from October 1, 2022. All Fuliza customers who have a positive limit and with no outstanding balance will benefit from the new tariff.
Fuliza overdraft facility was launched on January 5, 2019, in partnership with Commercial Bank of Africa (now merged into NCBA) and KCB Group.
Borrowings from Safaricom’s overdraft service rose by 30.7 percent in the six months to June this year to Sh288 billion up from Sh220.38 billion in the same period last year.
The product may however be facing potential competition from a new zero-interest credit service dubbed Faraja.
The new product that would allow millions of its customers to shop for goods up to Sh100,000 and pay later will be offered by Safaricom, EDOMx-a Kenya-based financial technology firm and Equity Bank.
Faraja is a zero-interest credit service that would allow users to to shop for goods of up to Ksh 100,000 and pay later in installments. The launch was scheduled for July 6 at 8 pm but was postponed to a later date.
