Honest Safaricom reviews by consumers. Safaricom is the largest mobile phone company in Kenya. It also ranks as one of the best employers in Africa and is among the top 10 largest companies on the continent according to Forbes.

Safaricom MPESA reviews

The company offers a variety of services including: mobile voice and SMS, Safaricom home fibre internet, local and international money transfer services through MPESA, online shopping through MASOKO.

MPESA is the most used mobile money transfer service in Kenya with a daily transaction volume of over KES 18 billion. This is enabled by the over 302,837 MPESA agents across the country, international payments, and the MPESA to bank channels.

Safaricom reviews by consumers argue that the MPESA rates are way too expensive compared to Airtel Money and T-Kash. For instance, Airtel Money does not charge transfers between mobile numbers on its network. Safaricom charges users to transfer money on-net.

The MPESA withdrawal charges are also higher than those of Aritel Money. See the comparison below for selected bands:

Money transfer band (KES)	Airtel Money withdrawal rates	MPESA withdrawal rates	T-Kash withdrawal rates
10 – 49
50 – 100	9	10	10
101 – 500	22	27	26
501 – 1,000	23	28	26
1,001 – 2,500	25	28	26
2,501 – 5,000	40	50 (up to 3,500) 67 (up to 5,000)	48 65
5,001 – 10,000	75	84 (up to 7,500) 112 (up to 10,000)	80 105
10,001 – 25,000	125	162 (up to 15,000) 180 (up to 20,000) 191 (up to 35,000)	155 175 185

Safaricom voice tariffs

Safaricom allows subscribers to buy voice plans as prepaid, postpaid or hybrid users. The company charges KES 4.87 per minute for calls made during peak hours and KES 2.50 during off peak. The calling rates apply for both offnet and onnet calls.

However, customers enjoy various bonuses determined by the telecom. For instance, one can get KES 5 worth of airtime for using KES 5 on a particular day. These bonuses are not transferable. Also, callers enjoy deals by dialing *444# or *544# on both calls and internet. So it is possible to buy 30 minutes for only KES 20, to be used within a certain period.

While Safaricom has on of the widest coverage infrastructure in the country, its voice services haven’t been perfect. In 2017, the company paid a fine of KES 270 million for poor service including call dropping. The fine went up to USD 4.5 million in 2018.

A Bill that sought to have telecoms compensate customers KES 30 for a maximum of three calls dropped in a day expired, and it is not yet clear if it will be reintroduced after the August elections. The current fine system is 0.1 percent of gross annual revenue of a telecom.

In 2020, the Communications Authority of Kenya awarded a combined score of 50% to the Airtel, Safaricom and Telkom Kenya for failing to meet the threshold of quality service. The pass mark is 80% on eight indicators including speech quality, completed calls, call success rate and drop rate.

Safaricom internet services

Quick Safaricom reviews for both home fibre and satellite internet show that the firm charges the highest rates in the market. Reviews on internet stability are mixed.

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