KSh 101 Borrowed, KSh 85 in Fees: Fuliza Ya Pochi Charges the Smallest Traders MostKSh 101 Borrowed, KSh 85 in Fees: Fuliza Ya Pochi Charges the Smallest Traders Most

That is the arithmetic hidden in Fuliza Ya Pochi, the credit line Safaricom opened to more than a million micro-merchants this week. Lending to a mama mboga who is short when the supplier's lorry arrives at dawn is a good idea. Pricing that loan with flat daily charges, so that the smallest debts cost the most, is not. Safaricom should scrap the band system for traders and charge a simple percentage that falls on everyone equally.

The charges the launch left out are in the small print

As Mwenendo reported, the launch in Thika gave neither the limits nor the charges. They exist, but a trader has to dig for them. The terms and conditions for the service, posted on 22 September, set a one-off 1% fee on every amount overdrawn, then a daily maintenance fee that depends on how much is still owed.

Safaricom's Pochi Fuliza questions page adds a 48-hour free window before the daily fee starts, and a 30-day deadline to repay.

The money is lent by Sidian Bank, which the terms name as the financier. Repayment is taken automatically from the trader's collections, and the system keeps retrying until the wallet has funds.

This matters because Pochi is Safaricom's fastest-growing merchant service. Its full-year results for the period to March 2026 show Pochi merchants grew 81.5% to 2.1 million. Pochi was built for hawkers, salons, kiosks and other sole traders who wanted a cheap, simple way to take payments.

One extra shilling of debt multiplies the daily fee 3.6 times

The daily fee is not a percentage. It is a flat charge in bands. Owing between KSh 501 and KSh 1,000 costs KSh 6 ($0.05) a day including excise duty. Owing KSh 1,001 costs KSh 21.60 ($0.17) a day. One shilling more of debt and the nightly charge jumps 3.6 times.

On Mwenendo's arithmetic, assuming the 48-hour free window and 28 charged days, a trader who carries KSh 1,000 ($7.70) for the full 30 days pays KSh 178 ($1.37). A trader who carries KSh 1,001 ($7.71) pays about KSh 615 ($4.74), more than three-fifths of what she borrowed. The difference between those two traders is one shilling.

The smallest borrowers pay the most for each shilling

The bands also make the tariff run backwards. A KSh 101 debt attracts KSh 3 ($0.02) a night, close to 3% of the balance. Carried for 30 days, it costs about KSh 85, or 84% of the loan. A KSh 70,000 ($539.29) debt attracts KSh 30 ($0.23) a night, and over the same month costs KSh 1,540 ($11.86), about 2.2%.

In plain terms, the trader selling sukuma wiki by the bunch pays about 38 times more per shilling borrowed than a bigger trader owing KSh 70,000. That is the opposite of what a product sold as financial inclusion should do.

The 48-hour window softens this for traders who repay fast, and many will. But the people most likely to roll a small debt for weeks are those with the thinnest takings, and they are exactly the ones the bands hit hardest.

The terms reach beyond the business wallet

The small print goes further than price. Clause 9.3 lets Safaricom and the lender "combine, consolidate, debit, or set off funds available in any wallet registered in the Customer's name" until the debt is cleared. For a sole trader, that can mean the personal M-Pesa account she uses for school fees and rent, not only the Pochi till.

Clause 9.5 sends any money recovered to interest and fees first, and the debt second. Clause 17.2 says fees are "subject to change at any time at our sole discretion", although clause 12.4 promises 30 days' notice of any increase. Fall behind, and the questions page warns of a cut limit and a listing with a credit reference bureau 91 days after the due date.

Read together, the terms look like a consumer overdraft contract with a business label. That is the problem: a credit line for people who count every coin deserves terms built around how their takings actually arrive.

The strongest case for Safaricom, and where it falls short

The best defence is real. Fuliza Ya Pochi asks for no collateral, the 48-hour free window is generous, and a trader who clears her balance within two days pays only the 1% fee. Against a shylock or a lost delivery, a few shillings a night can be a bargain. Flat bands are also easy to explain on a phone screen.

All of that is true for the trader who repays quickly. It does not justify charging the trader who cannot repay quickly, usually the poorer one, many times more per shilling. Mwenendo made the same point about the 3% a month boda boda loans that cost about 61% a year: small borrowers keep being sold credit by the day and left to work out the yearly cost alone.

Three changes Ndegwa and Sidian should make before Christmas

Safaricom chief executive Peter Ndegwa launched the product, and Sidian Bank funds it. Together they should, before the December trading peak, replace the daily bands for Pochi traders with a single daily percentage, so no balance pays more per shilling than another.

They should show the cost of every overdraft as a shilling figure and a yearly rate on the confirmation screen before a trader accepts. And they should limit automatic recovery to the Pochi wallet unless the trader has expressly agreed otherwise.

The Central Bank of Kenya, which licenses and supervises Sidian Bank, should ask both firms to justify the band pricing for business borrowers and publish what it finds.

Fuliza Ya Pochi could become one of the most useful tools a Kenyan trader has. Priced as it is, it charges those with the least the most. That should change before a million traders learn it one midnight at a time.