Safaricom has launched Fuliza Ya Pochi, extending M-PESA’s credit ecosystem to qualifying Pochi La Biashara merchants and enabling micro-businesses across Kenya to access financial flexibility based on their everyday business activity.
The new product gives over one million qualifying Pochi La Biashara merchants access to an overdraft facility that empowers them to complete business payments even when their available balance is insufficient. Merchants can use the facility to pay suppliers, make Buy Goods purchases, send money, and settle utility payments, helping them keep their businesses running and serving customers without interruption.
“Across Kenya, thousands of micro-businesses face daily cash flow gaps that can mean missed sales, delayed stock purchases, or postponed supplier payments. Fuliza Ya Pochi helps merchants overcome these short-term challenges while continuing to build their businesses. As merchants transact and grow on M-PESA, they create a pathway to greater financial opportunities,” said Peter Ndegwa, Group CEO, Safaricom PLC.
Available to merchants who have actively used Pochi La Biashara for more than six months, Fuliza Ya Pochi can be accessed through the Pochi Mini App on My OneApp or via USSD *334#. Upon enrollment, qualifying merchants will receive a Fuliza Ya Pochi limit based on their business activity. Repayments are automatically made from future payments into the merchant’s Pochi wallet.
Pochi La Biashara provides entrepreneurs and informal businesses with a simple and secure way to receive customer payments while keeping business and personal funds separate. The platform is currently offering over two million micro-merchants a trusted foundation for managing their daily operations.
Introduced in 2019, Fuliza enables customers to complete transactions by providing access to additional funds when they do not have sufficient M-PESA balance. The proposition was subsequently extended to businesses through Fuliza ya Biashara, providing overdraft services to qualifying Lipa na M-PESA merchants.
Fuliza Ya Pochi marks the next step in this evolution, extending the proposition to Pochi La Biashara merchants and reinforcing Safaricom’s commitment to making financial services more accessible and relevant to the everyday needs of its customers.
The launch follows Safaricom’s recent measures to support customers and merchants using Pochi La Biashara. These include the zero-rating of all customer payments up to KES 200 and a 50% reduction in charges on customer payments above KES 200, capped at a maximum charge of KES 50, for a period of three months.
How Fuliza Ya Pochi Works
Consider Amina, who runs a small kiosk selling cooking oil, sugar, and flour in Kawangware. On a busy Saturday she receives a large order of flour from a nearby restaurant that wants immediate delivery. Her supplier will only release the extra packets of flour against cash.
Her Pochi balance is low because she restocked earlier in the week. With Fuliza Ya Pochi she will be able to complete the supplier payment instantly, deliver the required stock, and collects payment from the restaurant before the end of the day. The overdraft will be cleared automatically when she receives payment from the restaurant into her Pochi. Without the facility she would have lost the sale and, potentially, the restaurant as a regular customer.
Similarly, a barber shop in Nakuru that runs out of prepaid electricity tokens mid-afternoon can use the facility to buy tokens and keep the lights and clippers running until evening customers arrive. The same applies to a small bakery that needs to settle a gas-cylinder payment so the ovens stay on for the next day’s bread.
By removing the need to pause operations while waiting for the next customer payment, Fuliza Ya Pochi reduces lost sales and protects supplier relationships that are often built on trust and timely payment.
The launch comes alongside Safaricom’s recent temporary measures that zero-rate all customer payments up to KES 200 and cut charges on higher amounts by 50 percent (capped at KES 50) for three months. Lower transaction costs increase the volume of money flowing into Pochi wallets, which in turn can improve the activity metrics that determine Fuliza Ya Pochi limits.
Cheaper payments encourage more digital transactions, and the overdraft facility ensures those transactions can continue even when timing is imperfect.
This continues the evolution that began with Fuliza in 2019 for ordinary M-PESA users and was later extended to Lipa na M-PESA merchants as Fuliza ya Biashara. Fuliza Ya Pochi simply brings the same logic to the larger and more informal Pochi La Biashara base.
Merchants Will Have Access To Cash Flow Without Traditional Credit Scoring
A merchant who has received consistent customer payments for six months or more has already demonstrated cash-flow capacity inside the M-PESA ecosystem. That history is more relevant to short-term business liquidity than other collateral like a pay slip or land title that most micro-merchants do not possess. Automatic repayment further reduces moral hazard compared with open-ended loans.
With the facility, micro-Merchants will have access to a reliable credit facility that will enable them to transact and plan their finances better without having to delay or postpone payments.
Over one million qualifying merchants now have a practical tool to smooth the cash-flow friction that has historically forced them to turn away sales or delay essential payments. Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa says Safaricom has already approved limits for 800,000 merchants and will continue to review and approve more micro-merchants and small businesses.
Combined with the existing Pochi La Biashara platform that already separates business and personal funds for more than two million users, Fuliza Ya Pochi will further strengthen Kenya’s expanding informal economy.
