Safaricom M-Pesa Transaction Charges

The amendment of the Customs & Excise Duty Act-Finance Act of 2012 has brought an increase in 10% excise duty on all money transfer fees. With this, Safaricom, the largest player in the market for mobile money transfer services will see its customers pay more for the famous M-Pesa money platform. 

The 10% increases in M-pesa transaction charges will affect transactions ranging from 101 while transactions below 100 will remain unaffected. The increase in fees will be slapped on transactions involving transfer of money to M-Pesa customers, transfer to un-registered Safaricom numbers and withdrawals. The new M-Pesa Tariffs rates from Safaricom which took effect on 8^th Feb 2012 will be as follows.

New Safaricom M-Pesa Charges

Customer Charges
Transaction Range (Ksh)			Transaction Type and Customer Charge (Ksh)
Min	Max		Transfer to other M-PESA Users	Transfer to Unregistered Users	Withdrawal from M-PESA Agent
10	49		3	N/A	N/A
50	100		5	N/A	10
101	500		27	66	27
501	1,000		33	66	27
1,001	1,500		33	66	27
1,501	2,500		33	66	27
2,501	3,500		33	88	49
3,501	5,000		33	105	66
5,001	7,500		55	143	82
7,501	10,000		55	171	110
10,001	15,000		55	220	159
15,001	20,000		55	237	176
20,001	25,000		82	275	187
25,001	30,000		82	275	187
30,001	35,000		82	275	187
35,001	40,000		82	N/A	275
40,001	45,000		82	N/A	275
45,001	50,000		110	N/A	275
50,001	70,000		110	N/A	330
ATM Withdrawal
Transaction Range (Ksh)
Min		Max		Customer Charge
200		2,500		33
2,501		5,000		66
5001		10,000		110
10,001		20,000		193

The move was backed by Treasury and is aimed at raising revenue generated from the increasingly famous money transfer services; in a bid to assist the government handle its financial obligations.

In response to this, Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore appreciated that the government is taking measures to ensure it’s able to meet its financial obligations. He however raised concern that imposing tax on mobile money transfer was likely to raise a negative impact as it would widen the barrier of making financial services readily available; citing that such a move was untimely.