M-Pesa Slashes Fees as Possible Rival Emerges (Aug. 20, 2014)
Users of Kenya’s popular M-Pesa P2P payments platform can send funds at lower costs now that telecom provider Safaricom has slashed transaction fees for most transfers by more than two-thirds. Starting Aug 21, fees for M-Pesa transfers between 10 shillings (US$0.11) and 1,500 shillings (US$17.00) will drop by 67 percent, Safaricom announced. More than 65 percent of all transactions made over M-Pesa in Kenya fall within that range, the company said.
The fee cut comes as M-Pesa’s long-running dominance in the Kenyan money transfer market faces a potential challenge from Equity Bank, which earlier this year received a telecom license and is establishing its own mobile transfer platform. Safaricom has lodged a complaint with Kenyan regulators alleging the SIM cards Equity plans to distribute to users could increase fraud risk.
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