The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is moving to slash the cost of mobile money transfers in a sweeping effort to reignite financial inclusion in a market that has long been the global model for digital payments.
- •The draft National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2025 – 2028, sets an ambitious goal of lowering the average transaction fee down from KSh 23 in 2024 to KSh 10 by 2028.
- •The regulator argues that high costs have slowed growth in usage of services like M-PESA and Airtel Money, leaving millions of lower-income households locked out of broader participation in the digital economy.
- •The mobile money revolution, once synonymous with relentless expansion, is showing signs of fatigue, with penetration having leveled off at 82.3% of adults in 2024.
While volumes keep rising- transactions reached an estimated KSh 8.7 trillion in 2024- the number of new users is stagnating and most still rely on basic peer-to-peer transfers rather than savings, insurance, or investments.
The financial inclusion plan also targets to improve active bank account usage from 45.6% to 60% by 2028, expanding formal savings adoption from 68% to 75%, and lifting investment uptake from a paltry 4% to 15%.
Alongside fee caps, the central bank also plans to foster interoperability by rolling out a fast payment system, developing open API standards to integrate financial institutions, and to digitize savings tools to make them more accessible. Authorities also want to boost financial literacy to encourage long-term use of products like pensions, insurance, and capital markets instruments.
The plan highlights the balancing act between commercial imperatives and public interest. Mobile money has become a cornerstone of revenues for Kenyan telcos, with M-PESA alone contributing nearly half of Safaricom’s service earnings in 2024. However, the regulator maintains that pricing structures must reflect the role of digital payments as a public utility as much as a profit center.
The initiative will be guided by a 14-member National Financial Inclusion Council, chaired by the Treasury’s principal secretary and bringing together the central bank governor, senior ministry officials, and the heads of key regulators including the CMA, IRA, and SASRA.
The council, with the CBK as its secretariat, will meet twice a year to review progress, mobilize resources, and approve action plans, positioning itself as the high-level body that aligns government and industry around the goal of pushing digital finance deeper into the economy.
The CBK has issued a public notice inviting comments on the draft strategy, setting the deadline for submission on Thursday 9th October.