The High Court has directed banks and telecommunication companies including Safaricom to postpone the implementation of bank to MPesa charges while it makes a decision.
Judge Mugure Thande issued the interim court order that was lodged by a Nairobi resident Moses Wafula who argued that the cost should have been borne by operators.
Court decision now stops telcos and financial institutions from implementing the fees that were waived by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on December 6 2022.
Wafula said that Safaricom has no authority to charge members of the public for a service offered to its contracting service recipients including banks.
“The petition pending determination illustrates that the engagement between Safaricom and its M-Pesa Paybill clients (such as Banks, Government agencies, Kenya power, DStv, Betting firms, mobile money companies, and other institutions) is a bipartite business engagement between Safaricom as the M-Pesa paybill service provider and their M-Pesa paybill primary clients being the service recipients,” he said.
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The regulator reinstated charges on transfer of funds from Banks to MPesa wallets, representing a win for financial institutions who had been urging for reinstatement.
The Government waived charges as part of an emergency plan to encourage mobile money transaction at the height of Covid-19 pandemic on March 16 2020.
“The revised maximum charges for transfers from bank accounts to mobile money wallets will be reduced by on average up to 61 percent, and mobile money wallet to bank account by on average up to 47 percent. Tariffs for paybills that are used to collect and disburse funds by businesses, companies and institutions will be reduced on average 50 percent while charges levied by banks for mobile money transactions will be reduced by on average 45 percent,” CBK said
