Safaricom launches Fuliza Ya Pochi overdraft for Kenya's informal Pochi La Biashara traders

Safaricom has launched Fuliza Ya Pochi, an overdraft facility that lets small traders on its Pochi La Biashara business wallet complete payments when their balances fall short, the Kenyan telecoms operator announced. Birr Metrics reported that more than one million merchants qualify at launch. The state-run Kenya News Agency presented the product as a move to widen access to credit.

The product extends Safaricom's Fuliza overdraft model to Kenya's informal economy, where traders often lack registered businesses, collateral or bank histories. Fuliza's revenue grew 46 per cent in the year to March 2026, according to Birr Metrics. Safaricom will assess creditworthiness from transaction data rather than conventional credit records. If that approach works at this scale, it could change how micro-traders pay for stock and suppliers. It also exposes them to daily fees and possible credit bureau listing if they fall behind on repayment.

How the overdraft works

According to Birr Metrics, eligible merchants can use the facility to pay suppliers, buy goods, send money and settle utility bills even when their wallets lack sufficient funds. Repayment is deducted automatically from later payments received into the merchant's Pochi wallet.

The outlet reported that eligibility is limited to merchants who have used Pochi La Biashara actively for more than six months and who have transacted on at least 15 days in a 30-day period. Credit limits are set according to business activity. Traders can enrol through the Pochi Mini App on My OneApp or by dialling *334#.

Birr Metrics reported the following costs, given in US dollar equivalents:

• a 1 per cent fee on each disbursement;
• no daily maintenance fee for the first 48 hours;
• after that, a tiered daily maintenance fee, ranging from nothing on balances of up to $0.77 to $0.23 a day on balances between $19.32 and $540.90;
• a 30-day repayment period.

Merchants who do not repay face suspension of the service and reduced limits. Those more than 91 days past the due date may be listed with a credit reference bureau, according to the outlet. The facility was developed with Sidian Bank.

Conflicting eligibility figures

The size of the eligible pool is unclear. Birr Metrics reported that Group CEO Peter Ndegwa said at the launch that the facility makes all 3.3 million Pochi customers eligible for credit. The same report puts Pochi's user base at 2.2 million at the end of the 2025/26 financial year and says more than one million merchants currently qualify. The report does not explain the difference between the 3.3 million and 2.2 million figures.

Pochi's rapid growth

Pochi La Biashara lets traders keep business money separate from personal funds without a registered business or a till number. Birr Metrics reported that users rose from 600,000 in the 2024 financial year to 1.1 million a year later, and then to 2.2 million. Over the same period, revenue grew from $6.2 million to $17 million and then to $30.9 million, which the outlet described as an 86 per cent rise in the latest year.

On those figures, Pochi has about twice as many merchants as Lipa na M-PESA, Safaricom's formal till-number system, which has about one million. Birr Metrics said Pochi accounts for roughly 67 per cent of a merchant base of 3.1 million. The outlet attributed part of the wallet's popularity, particularly among women traders, to two features: senders cannot reverse payments, and they cannot see the recipient's phone number.

Background: Fuliza and M-PESA

Safaricom introduced Fuliza, Swahili for "continuously flowing", in January 2019. Birr Metrics reported that the company built it after finding that millions of M-PESA transactions were cancelled every day for lack of funds, and that 58 per cent of those were completed within two days. Fuliza serves about 17 million individuals, according to the outlet. In the year to March 2026 it earned Safaricom $46.4 million, up 46 per cent.

The company later added Fuliza ya Biashara for qualifying Lipa na M-PESA merchants. M-PESA as a whole generated $1.41 billion in revenue in the year, up 13.4 per cent. That was 45.6 per cent of Safaricom's Kenya service revenue, Birr Metrics reported.

The launch comes alongside temporary fee cuts for Pochi users. For three months, payments of up to $1.54 are free, and charges on larger payments are halved and capped at $0.39, according to the outlet.

Safaricom also operates M-PESA in Ethiopia through Safaricom Ethiopia.

What comes next

The reports do not say how many merchants have signed up or what default rates Safaricom expects. It is also not clear what Pochi charges will be when the three-month fee relief ends. Because repayments are deducted automatically from incoming payments, traders will need to account for them when managing daily cash flow.

Sources: Birr Metrics, Kenya News Agency (state)

Picture: Birr Metrics