What Is Fuliza? - Jua Kenya

Fuliza is an overdraft facility offered by the telecommunication company Safaricom to its Mpesa users. Every registered Mpesa line is eligible for Fuliza facility.

Fuliza is a Swahili word that translates to mean

Doing something continuously,
Doing something uninterrupted or
Keeping doing something

The concept behind Fuliza is to enable Mpesa subscribers to continue doing what they were doing uninterrupted.

Fuliza is not and was not intended to be a loan but is supposed to be a stop-gap measure to the financial needs of the Mpesa client.

Fuliza is offered by Safaricom in partnership with KCB and NCBA banks in Kenya.

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How Do You Use Fuliza?

You cannot access Fuliza directly and withdraw the cash. How ever, if you need cash, you can send to another M-pesa number then withdraw.
You can send Fuliza money to your bank account then withdraw using ATM.
You can buy airtime using Fuliza both for Safaricom and Airtel using paybill numbers but paybill charges will apply to the transaction.
You can pay for machedise using paybill numbers and till numbers. Here paybill and till number charges will apply.

How Do You Opt-In To Fuliza

Safaricom Fuliza Mpesa is accessible to all Mpesa registered lines as long as the line has passed the credit viability test by Safaricom. Among factors considered for credit viability of Fuliza is the duration that the line has been registered, the average daily Mpesa transaction amounts, previous history of defaults, or lack of among other factors.

Fuliza enables you to complete your M-PESA transactions when you have insufficient funds in your M-PESA account. You may access funds multiple times as long as you are within your Fuliza limit.

To register for the Fuliza overdraft facility, you need to dial Fuliza code *234# from your Mpesa registered line. From there you will follow the instructions and access the facility.

How Do You Check Your Fuliza Limit?

Once you have registered for Fuliza, you can check your loan limit by dialing the Fuliza code *234# and then select option 0 then select option 1 check limit. You will receive an SMS giving you the Fuliza Mpesa limit for that line.

Your Fuliza Mpesa limit will continue increasing with the more Mpesa transactions you undertake and the promptness in repayment of the facility.

How Do You Repay The Fuliza Facility?

Once you have confirmed your credit limit you can go ahead and use Fuliza to pay bills, send money to other Mpesa customers as well as other non-registered Mpesa numbers.

However, it should be noted that Fuliza cannot be withdrawn using Mpesa. You can only pay something with it or send the money to someone who will give you cash.

Mpesa agents have devised a way to help their customers with mobile loans and you will find a number strategically placed for people to send money to withdraw the same.

Fuliza is recovered automatically from any deposits made to the Mpesa account. For example, if you had an outstanding Fuliza amount of Kshs 500 and you received or deposited Kshs 1,000 to your Mpesa account, the outstanding Fuliza plus charges will automatically be recovered from the Kshs 1,000 deposit you have made.

This recovery method has seen the default rate falling as the money is automatically recovered from Mpesa deposits. Fuliza has a recovery rate of over 98.5% of all the funds lent out.

To ensure timely recovery of the overdraft facility, Safaricom started, effective September 14, 2021, to recover the outstanding Fuliza loan from funds held in M-shwari and KCB M-pesa accounts.

The notice given by Safaricom and the banks states that the banks reserve the right not to give you notice before the use of your funds in the wallets to recover Fuliza’s debt.

Final Thoughts

Fuliza overdraft facility has come in to help thousands of Kenya’s who have found themselves on the receiving end of the hard economic times. According to the published financial statements of Safaricom for the year 2021, “Fuliza has remained the most popular loan product during FY21, with a 61.3% YoY growth in revenue to KShs 4.5 billion and more than 100% growth in daily active Fuliza customers, now standing at 1.4 million. The average value of M-Shwari loans in FY21 increased by 26.3% to KShs 5,575.0, leading to a revenue increase of 15.5% to KShs 2.2 billion.”

Fuliza and M-pesa technology have had a great impact on the Kenyan society since inception. We can only expect to see phenomenal growth in Fuliza in the coming years.