NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Kenya: Communications Authority of Kenya ( CAK) has said it will not reverse its decision to allow Equity Bank to introduce mobile money transfer services despite protests from integrated communications service provider, Safaricom.

The commission’s Chairman Ngene Gituku said that three other financial institutions have been given a nod to introduce similar services. The move is expected to ignite fierce competition in the service and lead to a drop in the mobile money transfer charges in the country.

Safaricom has already announced a targeted reduction of transaction fees levied on its person-to-person M-Pesa transaction bands. The move has seen transaction fees reduced by up to 67 per cent in the low and medium-tiered bands which include the transfer of amounts ranging between Sh10 to Sh1,500.