Mobile money transfer charges across networks in Kenya are expected to drop significantly in before end of this year once mobile money interoperability takes effect after six month pilot launched yesterdaysSpeaking during the launch at Teleposta Towers in Nairobi, ICT cabinet secretary Joe Mucheru said that the initiative will inject efficiency, increase competition and hopefully bring down the cost of transactions. ''Mobile money users will be able to send and receive money across networks once the pilot window is over. Airtel Money scrapped off transfer fee across networks in October 2012 hoping to tame Safaricom's dominanceCurrently, Airtel and Orange Money users receiving money transfers have to go through an M-Pesa agent in order to withdrew. It proposed Interoperability to curb unfair unfair competitionKenya pioneered mobile transfer in the world when Safaricom launched M-Pesa in March 2007. If successfully launched, Kenya will become the second country in the continent to introduce mobile money Interoperability after Tanzania which launched wallet-to-wallet interoperability in September 2016

Source: The Star January 19, 2018 22:07 UTC