• Dubbed Fuliza ya Biashara, the product will apply when making transactions from a Lipa Na M-Pesa business till to other till numbers and pay bill numbers, when sending money to an individual, and when withdrawing to the nominated number or at an Agent.
• He said with more than 538,000 businesses accepting payments through the service, the strategy is to now go beyond collecting payments
Safaricom Plc has launched an overdraft facility that will see businesses borrow up to Sh400,000.
Dubbed Fuliza ya Biashara, the product will apply when making transactions from a Lipa Na M-Pesa business till to other till numbers and pay bill numbers, when sending money to an individual, and when withdrawing to the nominated number or at an Agent.
The service will advance an overdraft of up to Sh400,000 with a 24-hour interest-free period.
“We launched Lipa Na M-Pesa as a way for businesses to conveniently receive cashless payments through their mobile phones, whenever they are,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.
He said with more than 538,000 businesses accepting payments through the service, the strategy is to now go beyond collecting payments by providing business owners with tools to manage and grow their businesses.
“Fuliza ya Biashara caters especially to small businesses by providing them with instant, affordable credit, empowering them to rapidly respond to their business needs,” Ndegwa said.
Fuliza ya Biashara is immediately available through the M-Pesa Business App and on the Lipa Na M-Pesa Transacting Till on *234#.
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Business owners can access a minimum overdraft of Sh1,000 and can draw multiple overdrafts of up to Sh400,000 based on their assigned limit.
The overdraft is automatically repaid from incoming till payments with amounts outstanding beyond 24 hours and charged at a two per cent daily access fee for up to 29 days.
The Fuliza ya Biashara limit is reset every time a repayment is made, enabling business owners to immediately access new overdrafts including the amount they just repaid.
“This proposition once again signifies the immense opportunities available within the digital ecosystem managed by KCB and Safaricom,” KCB Kenya MD Annastacia Kimtai said.
“We believe that the roll-out of this exciting feature will give Kenyan entrepreneurs the headroom to scale up their business operations without getting into the danger of not servicing some of their critical needs like payments to suppliers.”
Safaricom and KCB says that the launch of Fuliza ya Biashara seeks to meet a gap in access to affordable credit especially among small and micro businesses that have been previously locked out due to their size and perceived risk.
Fuliza ya Biashara is M-Pesa’s first credit solution dedicated to businesses and the latest in a string of innovations targeting business owners on the platform.
In 2020, Safaricom introduced the Lipa Na M-Pesa business till ill and M-Pesa business app, enabling businesses to make payments from tills and providing simplified cash flow management through the app.
More than 390,000 businesses have downloaded the M-Pesa Business App with over 50 per cent of business transactions on M-Pesa being made through the app.
