Telecommunication companies and banks have protested the Central Bank of Kenya’s move to extend the free mobile money transaction fees without consulting them.
The firms said that CBK should have sought their opinion before unilaterally extending various relief measures on mobile phone payments by a further six months, which will see banks and telcos like Safaricom
lose billions of shillings.
Executives at the firms, who did not want to come on record, said that CBK should have extended the free service for a shorter period or introduced discounts on the transfer charges to cushion the organisations from losses.
“We were not consulted given the billions we stand to lose,” said a top Safaricom executive who sought anonymity for fear of CBK reprisals.
CBK introduced the measures to encourage cashless payments on mobile phones because the government said avoiding the physical use of cash would help contain the spread of the virus in the country.
Under the CBK directive, mobile phone money transaction fees under Sh1,000 are free with banks removing charges for customers moving cash between their mobile wallets and bank accounts.
