Safaricom to raise M-PESA charges

By Beatrice Obwocha

NAIROBI, KENYA: Kenyans will pay more for mobile money transfer from next Friday as Safaricom revises by 10 percent M-PESA transactions of more than Sh100.

This follows a move by the government to charge 10 percent duty for all money transfer services provided by cellular phone providers, banks, money transfer agencies and other financial service providers.

Safaricom CEO, Bob Collymore however said on Friday that the government’s move to introduce duty on mobile money transfer was premature as it would affect many Kenyans who are in need of basic financial services.

“We appreciate the need to support government as it seeks to reach its financial obligations. However, we maintain our position that a tax on mobile money is at that this time premature and is likely to have a negative impact on the country’s financial deepening agenda by creating an unnecessary barrier for wananchi who are most in need of basic financial services,” he said in a statement.

The new duty was introduced in amendments contained in the Finance Act of 2012.

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The Act contains a raft of tax measures by Treasury aimed at raising revenues for the government to fund growing financial obligations.