This archive report was first published on 31 August 2021.
Published on August 31, 2021, a report revealed that Kenyans are borrowing Sh. 1.2 billion on Fuliza daily, a significant increase from the previous year.
The amount borrowed on Fuliza hit Sh. 220.38 billion in the six months to June 2021, marking a 25% increase from the same period in 2020.
Launched in January 2019, Safaricom's Fuliza overdraft product has seen a rapid growth in loan uptake, with Kenyans borrowing Sh. 81 billion within the first six months after its launch.
According to Safaricom, Fuliza was launched to address the issue of customers canceling millions of M-Pesa transactions due to insufficient funds in their mobile wallets.
Like other mobile lending products, Fuliza uses algorithms from M-Pesa's transactional data to determine loan limits for users.
Analysts have suggested that Fuliza could present competition to traditional payment methods like credit and debit cards in the medium to long-term.
