Putting M-Pesa Transaction Costs into Perspective: Separating Chaff from Facts

As the world celebrates customer week, some online enthusiasts in Kenya have taken the advantage to get traction online by coming up with unverifiable innuendos about brands.

Some have been proved wrong through facts but some, capitalizing on the ignorance of those around them, have kept on peddling wrong information about brands and services.

They say that numbers don’t lie. Unfortunately, those pushing some negative information about brands seem to be aloof to the fact that numbers can be verified.

On Wednesday, a conversation erupted online about Safaricom PLC and its product M-Pesa. According to the proponents of the conversation, Safaricom was ‘overcharging’ and ‘deducting’ amount from transactions through hidden charges.

As M-Pesa users, among the more than 20 million M-Pesa customers monthly, the allegations on online forced us to dig a little deeper in an effort to verify what was being peddled.

From what was going on, online, many M-Pesa users seemed not to understand the transactional costs for Lipa Na M-Pesa and Paybill as well as sending and receiving cash within the network.

First, to say that there are hidden charges when sending and receiving cash or paying for products and services through Lipa Na M-Pesa and Paybill is a lie. Having used M-Pesa for the last eight years, we know and we can confirm that Safaricom always shows the transaction cost on every transaction. For incidence, if one is intending to send 500 shillings, say to Jane, before completing the transaction, one will get a prompt, eg “Jane will receive KSH 530.00. To STOP this transaction, send any letter within 25 seconds. Cost KSH 15.00.”

Every M-Pesa transaction cost is accompanied with cents, mostly indicated .00. To clearly find out how Safaricom charges for transaction, we used mySafaricom App that clearly indicates the cost, which has cents too. Simply go to mySafaricom App, click on M-Pesa then Cost Calculator. At the Cost Calculator, you will have two options, either, Send/Withdraw or Lipa Na M-Pesa. Choose an option you intend to use and check how much you will be charged on the amount to you intend to transact.

Why do we have cents? Cents often come when one is paying for services or products through Lipa Na M-Pesa and Paybill. Have a look at the image below:

A product that most of us use most is M-Shwari. They often give us loans when our pockets are yawning. Some of us often save with M-Shwari too. Active M-Shwari savers get their interest paid every quarter which has cents too.