•In total, Safaricom now has 1.7m fuliza customers that are active.
•Safaricom disclosed that the value of disbursements via the service hit Sh242.6b in the six months.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU
Covid-19 has left a majority of Kenyans living in borrowing and betting to make ends meet.
This was disclosed when Safaricom released its financial results for the first six months of the year on Wednesday.
The telco said Kenyans borrow Sh1.34b daily with 700,000 new users registered in the fuliza platform.
In total, Safaricom now has 1.7m fuliza customers that are active.
The sharp rise in the cost of fuel affected other basic household needs pushed the cost of living in September to 18-months high.
This made many households to borrow money from lenders, Fuliza included. The money mostly goes into household use mainly bills and quick solutions to buying products such as cooking gas, fuel and personal use.
Safaricom disclosed that the value of disbursements via the service hit Sh242.6b in the six months.
This is up from Sh149.4b that had been disbursed the previous year.
This means that at least Sh40 billion is borrowed via Fuliza every month, translating to Sh1.34 billion per day.
Fuliza continued to be Safaricom's cash cow, being the only digital financial service by the telco that recorded a growth in revenue in the first half of the year.
The telco is also banking on the increased uptake of its loan facilities led by Fuliza to break the Sh110 billion gross profit ceiling in 2022.
Chief executive Peter Ndegwa hailed the overdraft facility introduced in 2019 for propping up M-Pesa's earnings that accounts for 38 per cent of the firm's total revenue.
The overdraft facility recorded a 32.2 per cent growth in revenue to Sh 2.8 billion from Sh2.1 billion in the first half of 2021.
Digital loans also top business growth credit sources mainly for SMEs seeking to bolster their working capital, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic when banks cut down on individual and households loans.
Betting
In the same six months period, Kenyans spent Sh83.2b to place bets through M-pesa platform alone.
Safaricom said the value of the bets jumped 69 percent from Sh49.2b a year earlier.
The telcos revenue from betting doubled to Sh2.95b from Sh1.48b. This is despite the fact that the government is planning to restrict the gaming to 8pm-5am.
Betting is popular among young people who are employed or jobless.
It is in betting that some put all their earnings to get a double gain. This money in mostly used for household activities.
While a few get huge amounts of money, some place bets and end up losing.
Betting is now the second Largest business line by revenue under M-pesa payments and betting unit.
Kenya was one of the very first countries on the African continent to revise its own gambling laws and regulations.
Since the country’s gambling laws and regulations were established several decades ago, Kenya is also considered one of the most open-minded African nations when it comes to online and land-based gambling activities.