Launched in 2019, Safaricom’s overdraft facility, Fuliza, has grown to be a household name. By now, everyone must have interacted with the product directly or indirectly. Remember when over 81 billion was borrowed in just 6 months? Fuliza now makes more than M-Shwari and KCB M-Pesa combined.

Well, that’s the reason Safaricom have been looking for ways to expand the facility to more people. The latest improvement/expansion being allowing customers to be able to withdraw their balances via the usual M-Pesa Agents.

Since launch, Fuliza has only allowed you to pay via till or paybill numbers, and to send money, when you don’t have enough in your account. You’ve never been able to actually withdraw the cash, like you would normal M-Pesa balances.

This has brought about issues with people having to send money to others so as to be able to access cash. That’s now changing. There are many instances where you will actually need cash, especially with the way the market is currently set up.

What’s interesting to note is that this new feature opens up extra revenues for Safaricom. Not only will you be paying back the overdraft with interest, you will also be charged normal withdrawal charges.

Recently, Fuliza readjusted the repayment rates down by up to 50%. This will definitely encourage higher uptake, and open up the company to more profits.

AMOUNT IN KES	OLD RATES	NEW RATES	% CHANGE
One-time Access Fee	1%	1%	No Change
1 – 100	KES 0 Daily Maintenance Fee (DMF)	KES 0 DMF
101 – 500	KES 5 DMF	KES 2.5 (Free first three days)	50%
501 – 1,000	KES 10 DMF	KES 5 (Free first three days)	50%
1,001 – 1,500	KES 20 DMF	KES 18	10%
1,501 – 2,500	KES 25 DMF	KES 20	20%
2,501 – 70,000	KES 30 DMF	KES 25	16.7%