Borrow KES 1,000 on Fuliza and keep it for a week, and by Safaricom's own price list the charges come to KES 52.
That sounds small, and it is small in shillings. As a simple yearly rate, by our arithmetic, it is 271%. The average bank loan in Kenya cost 14.34% a year in August 2026.
The Afronomics verdict: Fuliza is priced in shillings a night, which is accurate but hard to add up; worked out as simple yearly rates, the published fees on a KES 1,000 balance come to 231% to 584% a year, sixteen to forty times the average bank loan rate.
What Fuliza charges
FactsFuliza is an overdraft on M-PESA. Safaricom runs it with lenders: its FY26 results booklet names NCBA, KCB and Sidian Bank. Safaricom's Fuliza page sets out the price. "A customer will be charged a one off 1% access fee and a daily maintenance fee is applied the next day at midnight or 00.00 hrs. A customer will also be charged 20% Excise Duty on the daily maintenance fee."
FactsThe daily fee depends on how much you owe, not on a percentage. Safaricom's table, with the excise duty included:
| Amount owed (KES) | Daily fee | Excise duty | Total a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 to 100 | KES 0 | KES 0 | KES 0 |
| 101 to 500 | KES 2.50 | KES 0.50 | KES 3 |
| 501 to 1,000 | KES 5 | KES 1 | KES 6 |
| 1,001 to 1,500 | KES 18 | KES 3.60 | KES 21.60 |
| 1,501 to 2,500 | KES 20 | KES 4 | KES 24 |
| 2,501 to 70,000 | KES 25 | KES 5 | KES 30 |
Source: Safaricom's Fuliza page, last updated 23 June 2025, read on 15 October 2026.
FactsSo a balance cleared before midnight on the day it was drawn pays only the 1% access fee. Each midnight it stays unpaid adds that night's fee.
What the numbers show
AnalysisWe worked out the cost of four common cases from the table, then turned each into a simple yearly rate: the cost for the period multiplied up to a year, the way most loan rates are quoted, with no compounding. Nobody borrows on Fuliza for a year at a stretch; the yearly rate is there so the price can sit next to a bank's.
| Case | Cost | Share of the amount | Simple yearly rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| KES 1,000 for 1 night | KES 10 + 6 = KES 16 | 1.6% | 584% |
| KES 1,000 for 7 nights | KES 10 + 42 = KES 52 | 5.2% | 271% |
| KES 1,000 for 30 nights | KES 10 + 180 = KES 190 | 19.0% | 231% |
| KES 100 for 1 night | KES 1 + 0 = KES 1 | 1.0% | 365% |
Arithmetic: yearly rate = cost ÷ amount × 365 ÷ nights. Example, 7 nights: 52 ÷ 1,000 = 5.2%; 5.2% × 365 ÷ 7 = 271.1%.
AnalysisThe comparison. KES 1,000 for 30 days at the 14.34% average bank lending rate would cost about KES 11.79 in interest, before any bank fees. On Fuliza it costs KES 190. Lent to the government for 30 days at the latest one-year Treasury bill rate of 9.0383%, the same KES 1,000 would earn about KES 7.43. M-Shwari, the 30-day loan Safaricom offers with NCBA, charges a flat 9% including excise duty: KES 90 on KES 1,000, or 109.5% a year simple.
AnalysisTwo quirks of the table are worth knowing. First, the bands are steps, not a slope. Owing KES 1,001 instead of KES 1,000 lifts the nightly fee from KES 6 to KES 21.60, 3.6 times as much for one more shilling. Seven nights on KES 1,001 cost about KES 161, against KES 52 on KES 1,000. Second, balances of KES 100 or less pay no daily fee at all, only the 1% access fee. KES 100 held for 30 nights still costs KES 1, about 12% a year: cheaper than a bank. The expensive part of Fuliza is the middle, where the daily fee is large next to the balance.
AnalysisThe same price looks small or large depending on how it is shown. KES 6 a night on KES 1,000 is 0.6% a day. Safaricom publishes it as shillings a night, which is accurate. Banks quote a yearly rate. Fuliza's charges are fees, not interest, so the yearly rates in this Receipt are our arithmetic on Safaricom's published table, not a rate Safaricom or its lenders quote.
How much Kenyans use it
FactsSafaricom's FY26 results booklet, for the year to 31 March 2026, reports:
| Fuliza | FY25 | FY26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value of disbursements | KES 981.6bn | KES 1,465.8bn | +49.3% |
| Value of repayments | KES 996.7bn | KES 1,487.3bn | +49.2% |
| Average ticket size | KES 241.2 | KES 217.9 | −9.7% |
| Distinct customers | 7.9m | 17.7m | +123.7% |
| Safaricom's Fuliza revenue | KES 4.1bn | KES 6.0bn | +46.0% |
Source: Safaricom PLC, FY26 Results Booklet, Financial Services, Lending table (page 32).
AnalysisThe average draw, KES 217.9, sits in the KES 101 to 500 band, where the nightly fee is KES 3: about 1.4% of the balance for each night it stays unpaid. The booklet's revenue line is Safaricom's own Fuliza revenue. It does not show the total fees customers paid or how they are split with the lenders, so we do not estimate them.
FactsThe booklet puts repayments at 101.5% of disbursements in both years.
Our verdict
OpinionFuliza is priced in shillings a night, which is accurate but hard to add up; worked out as simple yearly rates, the published fees on a KES 1,000 balance come to 231% to 584% a year, sixteen to forty times the average bank loan rate.
The fair case for Fuliza is real. It is there at 11pm with no form, no branch and no security. A balance cleared the same day costs 1%, and very small balances pay no daily fee. For a till short by a few hundred shillings until payday tomorrow, a few shillings is a reasonable price for the convenience.
The difficulty, in our view, is the unit. A price in shillings a night is easy to accept and hard to add up: on its own it does not show that a month on KES 1,000 costs nineteen percent of the money borrowed. The band steps add a cliff of their own: the cheapest place to be is just under a threshold, and a shilling over it can triple the bill. The highest yearly figure, 584%, is for a single night, where most of the cost is the one-off 1% access fee; held for 30 nights, it is 231%.
The fees are not hidden; they are on Safaricom's own page. What a reader needs is the total, and that takes arithmetic. Our calculator does it, for any amount and any number of nights.
What would change our mind
Evidence that Fuliza customers are shown the total cost and a yearly rate before each draw; we have not tested what the M-PESA menu shows, and Safaricom is welcome to tell us. A tariff that rises smoothly with the balance instead of in steps. Or results showing most Fuliza balances are cleared within a night, so the yearly figures above rarely apply in practice; the booklet does not publish how long balances stay unpaid.
Check your own numbers: the M-PESA and Fuliza charges calculator works out what a Fuliza balance costs by the night, and mobile loans compared sets Fuliza beside M-Shwari, Tala and the bank average.
Information, not advice.