The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has announced the resumption of charges for transactions above ksh.100 for Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies(SACCOs) through a bank's individual mobile money wallet on Thursday, April 1.
This payment method enables a bank to integrate its financial services with other financial institutions. The bank money wallets are closely linked to the credit societies sector.
This comes as a relief for SACCOs as they facilitate loans for a membership need for short-term capital and lack alternatives to connect with the mobile money ecosystem.
The move is to serve as an incentive to banks to offer support to SACCOs as they provide an important bridge to the domestic and cross border payment systems.
The resumption of charges will provide space to increase the connection options for SACCOs and will be reviewed.
"The resumption of the charges will be subject to review by CBK against the pricing principles announced on December 17, 2020, of customer-centricity, transparency and disclosure, fairness and equity, choice and competition, and affordability," read the statement.
The principles aim to support the development of an efficient, safe and stable payments and mobile money ecosystem where the customer and public interests are adequately protected.
The charges had been waived in 2020 to cushion Kenyans against the economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic
Banks in Kenya deploy two types of mobile banking wallets. In the first, banks partner with payment service providers to utilize their mobile money wallets to provide a variety of transactions through customers’ bank accounts. In the second wallet, they invest directly in their own in-house mobile banking wallets to facilitate mobile money and other wallet based financial services
CBK will continue to monitor developments and support the growth of the payments ecosystem to ensure choice, competition, and affordability.
The measures announced by CBK were set to expire on June 30, 2020, but were extended until December 31, 2020, following a review.
"Against the backdrop and pursuant to Regulation 43 (2) of the National Payment System Regulations, 2014, CBK has determined that the wallet transaction limits that were announced on March 16, 2020, will remain in force," stated the regulator.
