After M-PESA, Airtel Money increases wallet limit to $3,400

Airtel Money has acquired approval to improve cell cash limits to KES 500,000 ($3,400). Customers will even transact up to KES 500,000 each day, up from KES 300,000 ($2085). 

Yesterday, Safaricom introduced it had made some changes to its M-PESA wallet, reporting a limit improve from KES 300,000 ($2,085) to KES 500,000 (a little bit over $3,400). The firm additional shared that the each day transaction threshold had additionally been raised to KES 500,000 from its earlier mark of KES 300,000.

Today, Airtel Money has joined this dialog, matching the upper limits after receiving approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). This signifies that Airtel Kenya’s cell cash customers can now maintain up to half one million Kenyan shillings inside their wallets and conduct transactions of the identical quantity each day.

However, similar to M-PESA, the limit per transaction will stay restricted at KES 150,000 ($1,043).

Anne Kinuthia-Otieno, Airtel Money’s managing director, mentioned the corporate was “elated about the CBK’s decision as this change will significantly empower our customers and partners by providing them with the flexibility to conduct larger transactions and manage their finances more effectively.”

Expanding the each day transaction cap will doubtless carry benefits to a various buyer base, together with governmental entities and different stakeholders. 

In phrases of market share, Airtel Money is not any match to market chief M-PESA. As of March 2023, M-PESA commanded a market share of 96.5% within the cell cash area. Airtel Money got here in second place with a modest 3.4%, trailed by Telkom Kenya’s T-Kash with simply 0.1%.

The central financial institution of Kenya and different companies have been attempting to stage the taking part in area within the cell cash sector. Yet, these efforts haven’t been beneficial to smaller corporations. M-PESA stands as a dominant power in Kenya’s fee companies panorama. While Safaricom has denied its dominance, M-PESA nonetheless captures most fee service avenues. These avenues have been made interoperable in latest occasions.

However, the largest increase might stem from company interoperability. This growth might empower clients to use Airtel Money and T-Kash extra by tapping into M-PESA’s intensive company community. This has been partially achieved; M-PESA’s tills and pay invoice numbers have achieved interoperability with Airtel Money and T-Kash, but this has not yielded important shifts in making a stage taking part in area for different contenders.

Conversations have additionally surfaced concerning the potential opening of M-PESA’s company community to its rivals, doubtlessly expediting different contributors’ development. However, this growth has not been formally introduced, presumably due to delays. Considering the substantial assets invested in its growth, Safaricom may be hesitant to share its community, particularly with entities that didn’t contribute to its development.