The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has vacated a waiver on charges incurred by a customer during the transfer of cash from mobile money wallet to banks and vice versa.
The reintroduction fee will become effective January 1, 2023. The waiver first came into play on March 16, 2020 as a mitigating measure to cushion millions of Kenyans from the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the regulator, the changes in the payment ecosystem follows discussions and lobbying between banks and Payment Service Providers (PSP).
“Central Bank of Kenya announces the reintroduction of charges for transactions between mobile money wallets and bank accounts. The new charges are significantly lower than those that applied before and will apply after January 1, 2023,” said CBK in a press release.
Fees transfer from bank accounts to mobile money wallets has been slashed by 61 percent while mobile wallets to bank accounts charges have been reduced by 47 percent.
Tariffs for paybills used to collect and disburse funds by businesses, companies and institutions such as schools and utilities have been reduced by 50 percent.
Charges levied by banks for bank-to-mobile money transactions have been reduced by 45 percent.
During the waiver, CBK said that the number of Kenyans actively engaging mobile money increased by over 6.2 million.
The monthly volume and P2P transactions increased from 162 million transactions worth Ksh.234 billion to 440 million transactions woth Ksh.399 billion – an increase of 171 percent and 71 percent, respectively.
Monthly volume and value of transactions between PSPs and banks increased from 18 million transactions worth about Ksh.157 billion to over 113 million transactions worth Ksh.800 billion, an increase of 527 percent and 41 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, the revised charges for bank to wallet and wallet to bank transactions will be announced by respective PSPs and banks, which will also take effect on the same date.
