The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has given the green light to mobile money providers to make some important changes.
These changes are aimed at making it easier for people and businesses to use mobile money and also to help the government in its efforts to use digital methods for payments.
Starting from next Friday, the limits for mobile money transactions are going up.
You used to be able to send a maximum of Ksh.150,000 in a day, but now you can send up to Ksh.250,000.
Plus, the amount of money you can keep in your mobile money wallet is increasing from Ksh.300,000 to Ksh.500,000.
“PSPs that offer mobile money wallets increased the daily mobile money transaction limit from Ksh.150,000 to a maximum of Ksh.250,000 and the size of the mobile money wallet from Ksh.300,000 to a maximum of Ksh.500,000,” read a section of the statement.
“The increase in the amount transacted through mobile money, and a higher mobile money wallet, will further deepen financial inclusion and facilitate businesses that have been constrained by the size of the mobile money wallet.
The new measures are also expected to support efforts by the Government to digitize payments for services offered to Kenyans.”
This is good news for many reasons.
It means you can do more with your mobile money, like paying bills and buying things, without worrying about hitting the limit.
Also, it’s going to help businesses that use mobile money because they won’t be limited by the size of their mobile wallets anymore.
These changes will affect all kinds of transactions, not just the ones between mobile money providers.
The fees you pay for these transactions will be the same as before if you’re sending up to Ksh.150,000.
However, there’s an important thing to note.
With these higher limits, there’s a risk of bad things happening, like money laundering and fraud.
So, the mobile money providers need to put in place measures to stop these things from happening.
The Central Bank says it’s making these changes because they’ve seen a big increase in the use of mobile money over the past few years.
Since they raised the limits in 2020, more and more people and businesses have started using mobile money.
They’ve seen a 43% increase in pay bills and a 267% increase in till numbers.
The amount of money being sent through pay bills has gone up by 301%, and for till numbers, it’s up by 352%.
The volume and value of till number payments have also increased a lot, by 433% and 166% respectively.
“CBK data from the period March 2020 to June 2023 indicates the number of pay bills and till numbers have increased by 43% and 267% respectively; Volume and value of pay bill payments have increased by 301% and 352 %, respectively and Volume and value of till number payments have increased by 433%and 166%, respectively,” noted the statement.
So, these changes are all about making mobile money even more useful and helping Kenya move towards a digital future for payments.
