This archive report was first published on 23 December 2019.
December 23, 2019
Safaricom, the leading telecommunications operator in Kenya, is still weighing its options on whether to launch a new savings product on its M-Pesa platform, dubbed Mali.
Acting CEO Michael Joseph revealed that the company had completed testing the new product, which has a capped savings limit of Sh70,000 per saver and offers an annual interest rate of 10 percent.
According to policymakers, Kenya suffers from a low national savings rate, and analysts believe that Safaricom could be targeting the untapped market with the new savings product.
“Mali was and is a trial with only Safaricom staff and a few customers. It has now been completed and we have yet to decide to launch it or not with the requisite approvals,” said Mr Joseph in an interview with the Business Daily.
At 10 percent, the return from Mali is nearly double the current interest rate that banks are paying on savings. Official data shows that average savings interest fell to 4.58 percent in September compared to 6.33 percent in the same month last year.
Started 11 years ago as a service to allow Kenyans without access to the banking network to transfer money via mobile phones, M-Pesa now offers loans and savings in conjunction with local banks as well as merchant payment services.
