Kenyans Borrow Sh 20 Billion Airtime in Four Months

From November 24th to March 31st, Kenyans borrowed Sh19.9 billion worth of airtime through the Safaricom Fuliza overdraft program.

The difficult economic climate seems to have triggered an increase in the use of credit services. Safaricom’s latest sustainability report highlights their approach of extending credit lines, allowing customers to make airtime purchases through M-Pesa’s mobile money platform with the use of Fuliza. As a result, there has been an outstanding spike of Sh19.9 billion overflow at Fuliza. M-Pesa introduced its Fuliza overdraft service back in 2019 to assist customers with fulfilling transactions when there are insufficient funds present within their mobile wallets.

To enhance accessibility to credit, Safaricom recently reduced the fees associated with their service by 50%. As a result, the telco has witnessed a remarkable rise in subscribers, values and transaction volumes. Beyond their airtime overdraft services Okoa Jahazi, the Fuliza facility is an additional option to borrow airtime when low on balance. Further enhancing communication among callers, Safaricom also rolled out the possibility of transferring the cost of the call to the answerer via a unique approach called ‘reverse call’.

Prior to making a reverse call, clients must input ‘#’ followed by the desired number they wish to call. When they receive a reverse call request, the caller’s information will present itself on their screen. To accept the call, they need to opt in by pressing ‘1’. According to Safaricom’s latest report, there has been an almost twofold rise in the number of reverse calls made by customers, with 130 million documented relative to the preceding year’s 73 million.