This archive report was first published on 2 November 2019.
Published on November 2, 2019, Nairobi News reported that Kenyans had borrowed a staggering Sh140 billion from Safaricom's Fuliza overdraft service in just nine months.
Fuliza, the world's first contextual mobile overdraft facility, allows M-Pesa customers to complete transactions when they have insufficient funds in their account.
According to Safaricom, the increased demand for the service contributed to a significant boost in their M-Pesa revenues, earning the telco Sh1.6 billion in earnings from January to June 2019.
The growth of Fuliza has also led to a shift in Safaricom's revenue profile, with mobile-money service earnings edging closer to voice revenues, which depreciated to 34.7 percent in the period.
Interestingly, statistics suggest that out of two M-Pesa users, there is a high likelihood that one uses Fuliza.
