Airtel Money subscribers will get a 100% refund of transaction fees as airtime after transferring money from their bank accounts to the Airtel Money wallet, as the telco moves to bolster its market share.
- •Airtel Kenya’s Managing Director – Ashish Malhotra – stated that the airtime obtained from this refund will not expire and can be spent over a period of time.
- •The move reflects Airtel’s programme introduced in December 2023 called ‘Rudishiwa Transaction Fee’ that allowed the firm’s mobile money customers to receive refunds of the withdrawal charges as airtime.
- •The two programmes are meant to incentivize Airtel users in the market to adopt the telco’s mobile money service when making transactions, in a competitive bid to carve out Safaricom M-Pesa’s market share.
“This launch underscores our continued efforts towards offering seamless solutions designed to meet diverse communication needs of our customers, along with delivering exceptional value and convenience of staying connected throughout the month,” Ashish Malhotra said.
Airtel Money has over the past year paced up its marketing campaign through strategic partnerships and agents’ distribution. In September 2024, according to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), the mobile money service’s market share rose from 6.6% to 7.6%. Airtel’s SIM subscriptions stood at 29.6% between July and September last year, according to the CA. The firm is positioning itself as a cost-effective option.
The telco also launched ‘Smarta Bundles’, two packages priced at KSh 1,000 and KSh 1,500 that combines mobile data, voice, SMS, and Airtel Money benefits. The KSh 1,000 package will be valid for 30 days – offering 1GB every day and 3,000 airtel-to-airtel minutes.