M-Shwari is a paperless banking service owned by Safaricom and offered through the company’s M-PESA service. M-Shwari allows users to open and operate M-Shwari bank accounts directly from their mobile phones, via M-PESA, and without having to visit banks or fill out any forms.
The M-Shwari service also gives users the ability to move funds in and out of their savings accounts to their M-Pesa accounts without extra charges. It gives users the opportunity to save from as little as 1 Kenyan Shilling while earning interests of up to 6.65 % per annum on their savings balance. All you need to do is move the money from your M-Pesa account, to your savings account. It has a Lock Savings Account option which lets users save for a fixed period of time, while earning interests of up to 70 % of the Central Bank of Kenya Rate.
With M-Shwari, users get access to loans from as little as 100 Kenyan Shillings at any time at a facility fee of 7.5 % and receive the money on their M-Pesa account.
Today’s article will show you how to register for M-Shwari and also secure loans from the service.
Before registering for M-Shwari, you should know the following:
Terms and Conditions For M-Shwari Loans
- Your sim card must have been in use for at least 6 months old.
- You must have also been actively using other Safaricom products.
- You will be charged a one time fee of 7.5 % on your M-Shwari loan.
- While you can access loans from as low as 100 Kenyan Shillings, the loan limit is however 50,000 Kenyan Shillings.
- You can repay your loan through M-Pesa or M-Shwari. The repayment period for loans is however 30 days (one month).
Registering For M-Shwari
To register for M-Shwari, simply:
- Open up your mpesa menu and select loans and savings.
- Select Mshwari
- Choose ‘Activate’.
How To Get An M-Shwari Loan
- Go to your Mpesa menu
- Select loans and savings
- Next select the ‘Mshwari’ option.
- Once there, choose ‘loan’.
- Next select ‘Request loan’.
- Once there, type in the amount you wish to be loaned in the empty dialogue box and then type in your M-Pesa PIN.
- Click okay to send the request.
- You will then receive a message from M-Pesa confirming that your M-Pesa account has being credited with your M-Shwari loan. It will also contain details regarding your transaction and the expected repayment date for your loan.
You should make sure you check your loan limit. This is important because it will guide towards applying for a loan that is within your limit.
You can however decide to skip past checking your loan limit if the amount you intend to loan is not high.
If you do decide to ask for your loan limit, you will receive a confirmation text from M-Shwari which will contain details of your loan limit. Once received, you can proceed to continuing your loan application.
Even though the process of getting an M-Shwari loan is simple and straightforward, please make sure that you repay the loan within the time you have been given as failure to do so would put you on the negative CRB listing and also decrease your loan limits.
