Category: Airtime

  • Ethiopians snub money transfers, use M-Pesa to buy airtime, data

    While Kenyans use M-Pesa to send and receive cash and pay for goods and services, Ethiopians have taken a different tack. Safaricom expected rapid adoption in a cash-based economy with low credit card penetration and many rural markets needing connectivity. Instead, Ethiopians mainly use M-Pesa to buy airtime and data,…

  • Airtime, financial transaction levies dethrone ‘sin taxes’ as new KRA excise duty cash cow

    For a long time, the excise tax basket of tax officials was nearly filled with groups of individuals who could barely resist a rush of nicotine or a sip of the suds. Because the excise taxes were mainly taken from cigarettes and alcohol, they were called “sin taxes.” But the…