By Standard Reporter
Mobile phone operator, Safaricom has reviewed tariffs for its money transfer service, M-Pesa, a move that will see users pay more to transact for bigger amounts.
The operator has also introduced 11 new tariff bands as it moves to tap on other revenue streams as the voice call segment flattens out. M-Pesa is its key value added service.
In its latest review, M-Pesa customers will now be able to send and receive amounts as low as Sh10, against a previous limit of Sh50, with charges for transfers within this band pegged at Sh3. M-Pesa customers can also now make micro-payments from as low as Sh10 to Sh49 per month.
The firm’s chief executive officer Bob Collymore said, "It was very clear to us when we undertook this tariff review that we were in a unique position to extend the benefits of financial inclusion to more Kenyans, particularly those in lower income groups who rely very heavily on our service."
The operator, in a statement said it has lowered the transaction fees for its most popular value band, which lies between Sh101, and Sh500. The charge for this band, which accounts for over a quarter of all the transactions on the M-Pesa platform, has been reduced from Sh30 to Sh25, in a move aimed at stimulating more transactions within the band.
Users have been paying a flat-rate of Sh30 to send money of between Sh100 to Sh35,000, however in the new strtucture, to send Sh5,000 one will now pay Sh50.
For a registered M-Pesa user, to withdraw Sh5,000 at an M-Pesa agent outlet one will be levied Sh60 from the previous fee of Sh45 and amounts between Sh7501 and Sh10,000 will be charged Sh100 an increase from Sh75.
"The good news is that we have introduced lower charges for smaller transactions but at the same time we have had to increase the charges levied on the bigger amounts being transferred. This is motivated, in large part, by the need to give greater incentives to our growing agent network to embrace higher value transactions, while improving overall efficiency for our customers, particlarly float availability."
This is the first tariff review undertaken by M-Pesa since launch in March, 2007.
The vicious price war in the past two years has hit the mobile phone operator’s bedrock—the voice revenue, forcing it to shift focus to data, value added services and new business lines such as managed services.
Analysts see the future as one being built around data, value added services—such as money transfer, product differentiation and quality of service.
As at December 31, 2011, the service had more than 15.2 million customers and about 35,000 agent outlets countrywide.
M-Pesa customers can hold up to Sh100,000 in their M-Pesa account at any one time, and can do transactions of up to Sh140,000 in a day. Between Sh10 and Sh70,000 can be deposited, sent or withdrawn per transaction.
