Fuliza, a well-known overdraft provider, has reduced its daily maintenance fees by up to 40% in an effort to encourage more people to use the service.

The three companies that jointly operate Fuliza, Safaricom, NCBA, and KCB, plan to announce the fee drop later on Wednesday in an effort to increase financial inclusion for Kenyans.

With the new rates, the daily maintenance fee for overdrafts between Ksh. 101 and Ksh. 500 and Ksh. 501 to Ksh. 1,000 has been reduced by 40% to Ksh. 3 and Ksh. 6, respectively, from Ksh. 5 and Ksh. 10.

Customers will also receive reductions of 10, 20, and 16.7% on daily maintenance for overdrafts of Ksh. 1001 to Ksh. 15,000, Ksh. 1,501 to Ksh. 2,500, and Ksh. 2,501 to Ksh. 70,000.

“We have continued to assess the evolution of consumer behaviour and economic conditions to identify ways in which we can further enhance the utility of our digital financial services,” NCBA said in a notice of the new discounted tariff.

In spite of having insufficient funds in their mobile wallets, customers can still make M-Pesa transactions thanks to the Fuliza overdraft service, which was introduced in 2019.

As long as users stay within the established boundaries, the program allows them to access funds several times.

Safaricom, KCB, and NCBA distributed a combined Ksh.502.6 billion through Fuliza in the 12 months leading up to March 31, 2022, or Ksh.1.4 billion per day on average.

6.9 million Kenyans used Fuliza during the year, generating 5.9 billion Kenyan Shillings for Safaricom.

The average “loan” ticket size in Fuliza during that time was Ksh. 345.20. Customers paid back Ksh. 510.3 billion to the service in the same year, representing a payback to disbursal ratio of 101.5%.