The current tariff for mobile money transactions for Sh70,000 will apply for transactions up to Sh150,000.
Payment service providers and commercial banks have also been asked to eliminate charges for transfers between mobile money wallets and bank accounts.
“While the immediate objective is to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 by handling banknotes, these measures will also reduce the use of cash in the economy over the medium term,” CBK said.
The emergency measures will apply from midnight March 16, 2020, and will remain in place until June 30, 2020.
Uhuru also appealed to mobile money providers to cut on transaction costs to make the cashless shift affordable.
Safaricom is the first mobile money provider to comply with the set measures.
The current frameworks on anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) will continue to apply and CBK will closely monitor the implementation of these emergency measures.