Kenyans Borrowing Ksh 1.6 Billion Daily From Fuliza

Kenyans borrowed an average of 1.6 billion shillings from Fuliza, Safaricom’s M-Pesa overdraft during the first 6 months of 2022. Fuliza offers short-term loans whose uptake has been rising daily due to the biting cost of living among Kenyans.

In 6 months to June this year, Fuliza disbursed 290 billion shillings up from 220.38 billion shillings disbursed in the same period last year. This means Kenyans were borrowing about 66,666,666 shillings per hour from Fuliza in the past 6 months.

Fuliza has turned out to become the major moneymaker for NCBA, accounting for 85.54 percent of the group’s digital disbursements during the review period. Safaricom and NCBA partnered to offer the service that became a hit as soon as it was launched.

“Obviously given where the macros are we have continued to support our customers through this product,” stated the NBA Group Chief Financial Officer David Abwoga.

Related Content: Most Kenyans Regret Opting Into Fuliza

Despite its popularity among millions of Kenyans, a recent study by consultancy group Deloitte and data company DataEQ found out that a majority of M-Pesa users regret signing up on Fuliza. The two firms mined their data from social media conversations.

Others noted that their limits were so low thus hindering them from accessing more funds questioning Safaricom for charging them higher values on short-term loans. But this has not stopped Kenyans from consuming the seemingly popular service.

Fuliza allows M-Pesa customers to pay for goods and services, and send cash beyond their M-Pesa account balance. Safaricom recovers the loan by automatically deducting the cash from the M-Pesa account as soon as the borrower receives money in his or her M-Pesa.

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