Safaricom and KCB Bank Kenya (KCB) have launched Fuliza ya Biashara, a service that allows business owners on Lipa Na M-Pesa to complete their payments when they have insufficient funds in their till.

It will apply when making transactions from a Lipa Na M-Pesa Business Till to other Till and Pay Bill Numbers, when sending cash to an individual and when withdrawing to a nominated number or at an Agent.

Safaricom says Fuliza ya Biashara will advance an overdraft of upto Sh400,000 with a 24-hour interest-free repayment period.

“We launched Lipa Na M-Pesa as a way for businesses to conveniently receive cashless payments through their mobile phones, whenever they are,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.

More than 538,000 businesses accept payments through Lipa Na M-Pesa and Safaricom to go beyond collecting payments to provide business owners with the tools to manage and grow their businesses.

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“Fuliza ya Biashara caters especially to small businesses by providing them with instant, affordable credit of up to KSh. 400,000, empowering them to rapidly respond to their business needs,” he added.

The service is available via M-Pesa Business App and on Lipa Na M-Pesa Transacting Till on *234# and traders can access a minimum overdraft of Sh1,000 and multiple overdrafts of up to Sh400,000 based on their assigned limit.

The Fuliza overdraft is automatically repaid from incoming payments from the business owner’s till with outstanding amounts beyond 24 hours charged at a 2 per cent daily access fee for up to 29 days.

The limit is reset every time a repayment is made to enable business owners to access new overdrafts immediately including the amount they just repaid.

KCB Kenya Managing Director Annastacia Kimtai says the proposition is proof of the enormous opportunities available within the digital ecosystem currently managed by KCB and Safaricom.

“We believe that the roll-out of this exciting feature will give Kenyan entrepreneurs the headroom to scale up their business operations without getting into the danger of not servicing some of their critical needs like payments to suppliers,” said Kimtai.

She added, “As a partner, KCB will conveniently provide the much-needed support to guarantee scalability and access across its various customer delivery touchpoints.”

Safaricom and KCB say the Fuliza ya Biashara launch will fill a gap in access to inexpensive credit, especially among SMEs that have been previously locked out due to their size and perceived risk.

The two companies say the solution accords each business with a tailored overdraft limit based on transaction history on Lipa Na M-Pesa and repayment history of previous overdrafts.

Fuliza ya Biashara is M-Pesa’s inaugural credit solution that is solely dedicated to businesses and is among latest list of significant innovations that are targeting business owners on the digital platform.

In 2020, Safaricom unveiled the Lipa Na M-Pesa Business Till and M-Pesa Business App, which enabled businesses to pay from Tills and provide simple cash flow management through the app.

According toSafaricom, more than 390,000 businesses have downloaded the M-Pesa Business App and more than 50 per cent of business transactions on M-Pesa are being made through the app.