When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, one of the average Kenyans’ greatest regrets was that they had to use mobile money transfer for most transactions after handling of cash was discouraged as one way of curbing spread of the virus.

For customers, mobile transactions were expensive due to the fees levied for every transaction. For those in business, this opened an avenue for dishonest people to reverse payments done through mobile money services.

This problem of charges would be swiftly addressed. On March 16 last year, the waiver of fees for sending money between mobile money wallets and bank accounts was announced. And after a meeting with Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Patrick Njoroge, Safaricom announced that that all person-to-person transactions below Sh1,000 would be free for three months.But businesses, especially public service vehicles, soon announced that they would only accept cash payments. The digital payment system was in jeopardy.