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Article

16 Mar 2020

Author:
Paul Wafula, Daily Nation (Kenya)

Safaricom waives mobile money transaction fees to increase use of cashless payment and reduce Covid-19 transmission

"Safaricom waives M-Pesa fees"

Safaricom has become the first player in the mobile money business to cut prices following a request from President Uhuru Kenyatta. On Sunday, Mr Kenyatta asked banks and mobile money providers to consider reducing the cost of transactions to allow customers use cashless modes of payment as part of measures to stop transmission of Covid-19, widely known as new coronavirus...

This comes as countries such as China moved to disinfect banknotes with ultraviolet light, even though the World Health Organisation said that it still doesn't know how long the virus survives on objects such as money. South Korea recently said it was taking all banknotes out of circulation and destroying some of them in order to curb spread of the virus. The spotlight now shifts to banks and other telecommunications firms to follow suit.

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