Airtel has raised its per-transaction limit on its mobile money platform Airtel Money to Sh250,000, up from the previous Sh150,000, after what it termed successful engagements with the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
The revision, coming hot on the heels of a recent review of daily total transaction limits from Sh300,000 to Sh500,000, takes effect today, September 1, 2023.
In a strategy to attract high-net-worth users, the telco says that transaction charges for the newly introduced band shall remain similar to those that were previously charged in the Sh70,001 – Sh150,000 band.
Currently, Airtel doesn’t charge any transfer fees when users are sending cash to another Airtel Money account across all bands, but levies a maximum Sh105 fee per transaction for high-value transfers to a mobile wallet belonging to another network.
“With the increase of the per transaction limit, Airtel Money customers will experience convenience as they will not have to go through the hassle of breaking large transactions into multiple smaller transactions,” said Airtel Money Kenya managing director Anne Kinuthia.
“The incorporation of the 150,001 – 250,000 band of transactions without any further transaction charges is part of our strive to empower our customers with flexible and personalised solutions.”
Airtel’s closest rival Safaricom still maintains the Sh150,000 per-transaction limit on its mobile cash transfer platform M-Pesa but recently also stretched the daily transaction limit to Sh500,000.
This means that to exhaust the daily transaction limit, one would need to carry out just two transactions on Airtel Money while the same would require at least four transactions on the M-Pesa platform.
The two transactions from Airtel Money to a rival platform would cost Sh210 in fees chargeable while the four transactions across two M-Pesa accounts would cost a total of Sh432 as transfers within the Sh20,001 – Sh150,000 band cost Sh108 each.
