Airtel Kenya has today announced that all Airtel Money person to person money transfers below Ksh. 100 will be free from 1st January 2021.
This new development has been made possible by the guiding principles on pricing issues by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) which were released on 17th December 2020.
Airtel Kenya has subsequently amended their pricing for person to person transfers and Airtel Money wallet to bank as follows;
- All Airtel Money customers can transfer without any charges up to Ksh100 to any customers and network with no daily limit to the number of such transactions.
- Additionally, all transactions from Airtel Money wallets to customers’ bank accounts will be free of any charge
The maximum amounts that customers can hold in their accounts will be Ksh. 300,000 and the maximum amounts they can send is Ksh. 300,000. These amounts were increased during the COVID-19 pandemic by Airtel and its competitors Safaricom and Telkom Kenya and it looks like it is here to stay.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Airtel Kenya waived all person to person transaction fees for Airtel Money customers across all the bands. The company also revised the transaction limits for Airtel Money as follows;
- The maximum amount per transaction for Airtel Money has been increased from Ksh. 70,000 to Ksh. 150,000
- Daily limit for mobile money transactions from Ksh. 140,000 to Ksh. 300,000
- Airtel Money account balance limit increased from Ksh. 140,000 to Ksh. 300,000
- The current tariff for mobile money transactions for Ksh.70,000 will apply for transactions up to Ksh. 150,000
- Charges waived for transfers from Airtel Money account to the bank account
- The charges are 1bob & 2bob for bands Ksh10-49 & Ksh50-100 respectively after the first 3 transactions.
Airtel is the second telecommunications company in Kenya to announce adherence to the guidelines released by CBK. Safaricom recently announced that bank to M-PESA transactions will remain free and that money transfers below Ksh. 100. This particular measure was already in place for M-PESA however. Safaricom also went ahead to announce a reduction in charges for money transfers below Ksh. 2,500.