Safaricom customers can now purchase airtime for as little as Sh1 from their M-Pesa mobile wallets, a significant dip from the previous minimum of Sh5 as the telco targets to mop up additional revenue from low-budget spenders.
In an update on Monday, Safaricom urged customers to run a test on the freshly-activated model, setting a tone of enhanced inclusivity.
“Hata shilingi ni pesa! Sasa unaweza kununua Safaricom airtime ya kuanzia shilingi moja ukitumia M-Pesa. Angalia M-Pesa balance yako na ujaribu kununua leo , (Even a shilling counts! You can now buy Safaricom airtime from Sh1 from M-Pesa. Check your M-Pesa balance and try buying today)” reads the update.
Current Safaricom tariffs indicate that voice calls are charged at Sh4.87 per minute during peak hours and Sh2.50 in off-peak periods while sending a text message costs Sh1.20.
The new airtime purchase scheme comes just a month after the telco slapped joyriders on its free calls programme with a Sh0.50 daily charge after exhausting the two-calls-a-day set limit in what was seen as a shift towards cutting freebies to drive revenues.
“You will be charged 50 cents on your third reverse call request. Please note that you will not incur any other cost to use this service for the rest of the day,” Safaricom told customers in a text message last month.
The Sh1 airtime purchase option is, as a result, seen as a complementary service to this development as it will enable penurious users to meet the new requirement with relative ease.
Safaricom first introduced the reverse call option five years ago in June 2019, enabling subscribers to call without charges by transferring the cost of the call to the receiver.
The feature was designed to complement the ‘Please Call Me’ service as part of the telco’s grand efforts to drive subscriber numbers and ultimately revenues.
Safaricom’s dominance of the local voice market rose 65.5 percent in the quarter ended March this year, up from 63.3 percent in December, cutting that of its chief rival Airtel to 33.96 percent from 36 percent within the period.
The leading telco had 44.67 million subscribers as of March this year, but this has not translated to a steady jump in revenues largely owing to the millions of people who have turned to the reverse call option.
