1 Million Mpesa Subscribers Use Safaricom's Overdraft Service One Week After Launch
Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore says more than 1 million Mpesa subscribers have used the company's overdraft service that was launched more than a week ago.
Speaking to Reuters, Collymore says the service dubbed Fuliza or Kopa Mpesa has exceeded the company's expectations.
The service, which was rolled out 11 days ago, allows Mpesa users to send money or pay for goods and services even when they don't have sufficient money in their Mpesa wallet.
“We got a million (customers) by day eight and by day eight we had lent $10 million. Now we are probably at $15 million,” says Collymore.
“If you don’t have enough cash, you simply draw down from the overdraft and you keep drawing down until you have got to your overdraft limit, which is predetermined by an algorithm.”
Under the service, Mpesa subscribers are able to borrow up to Sh50, 000 which is to be repaid at an interest of 0.5 percent per day.
Safaricom rolled out Fuliza in collaboration with the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA).
“For example, if you want to buy goods worth Sh 5,000 but you only have Sh 4,500, you can borrow the bit that you don’t have (Sh500) within the limit that you have, just like an ordinary overdraft,” Collymore said in November 2018 when explaining how Fuliza works.
“You keep doing this again and again until you hit your limit, so it’s not that you borrow with us again,” he added.
Mpesa users can access Fuliza by dialing *243# or by using the mySafaricom app.
Comments
Truth be told, this is debt…
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Truth be told, this is debt trap to Kenyans. It's called " payday" loans in America. 0.5 a day is 15% a month and 180% a year. If you borrow shillings 1000 in a month you owe 1150 shillings in 30 days. In 30 days you owe shillings 150 in interest. Do not borrow just because it's available. If you borrow shillings 1000 in a year you owe shillings 2800 that means in a year you owe the shillings 1000 that you borrowed plus another shillings 1800 in interest. Fellow Kenyans, go back to your traditional borrowing and trusting of each other before you kill your future through foreign debt. It may look good, but that is paying almost 3 times the money that you borrowed in a year. It's called "Debt Trap" . Everything you buy with the borrowed money whether it's food, you will be paying three times the price of it. Everything that glitters is not gold. If our government cannot protect our citizens from such interest rates, we must protect ourselves by educating our people. God save Kenya.
God give Kenya leaders not politicians ! God help Kenya!!
Next will be borrowing …
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Next will be borrowing while you wait for your pay check, but the interest rate will be about 400% and you will never be able to pay it back.Or they will ask you to borrow using the "Title" of your car and the interest will be so high that you will loose your car or your assets to them. Kenyan's, try not to be caught up in this. Before you borrow, know exactly how much the loan is going to
cost you. Kenyan's please start saving your families; start working together as black people. Borrow from your families and pay back and reduce your appetite for foreign goods. Let us all create "A STATE OF MIND STATE". This means we launch that "STATE" by information. Pass information and knowledge about what is happening to the black man in the whole world . Every black man's pain should be your pain. A man makes a good decision when he is well informed. God save Kenya. God give Kenya leaders not politicians. God help Kenya and Africa!!
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