Safaricom has partnered with Commercial Bank of Africa to launch Fuliza, a new M-Pesa feature which should complement the existing 30-day loans offered via M-Shwari. Fuliza will allow MPesa users to complete transactions even with insufficient balance in their M-Pesa wallet.
THe new feature aims to reduce the daily rate of failed mobile money transactions due to insufficient funds. These tranactions currently account for 58% of all transactions on the platform.
Isaac Awuondo, CBA Group Managing Director said, “Our continued collaboration with Safaricom aims to drive financial inclusion in a digital economy. With our technological innovation and responsible lending principles, we will advertently bring more people into the financial system, encourage more transactions, more savings and, ultimately achieve stronger economic growth.”
How will Fuliza work? Customers whose Lipa na M-PESA transactions are more than the amount currently sitting in their M-PESA wallet to complete transaction with the benefit of the Fuliza limit for an access fee of 0.5%. Subsequently, a daily 0.5% maintenance fee is charged for each day the wallet remains overdrawn.
The overdrawn balance and fees are removed from the customers M-Pesa wallet whenever a deposit is made.
During the period within which your M-Pesa wallet is overdrawn,you will still have access to their M-Shwari limit.
Fuliza will be availabale to all Safaricom’s M-Pesa customers who have been active for at least 6 months and maintain a good M-Shwari credit score. It will be offered via the mobile money app and My Safaricom App.
