The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) says that its five-year National Payments Systems Strategy is designed to lower digital transaction costs and address persistent network challenges, which have been among the most frequent consumer complaints.
RBM Deputy governor Kisu Simwaka said this on Wednesday in Lilongwe during the launch of the strategy at a time consumers complain that high digital transaction costs run counter to the Malawi Government’s financial inclusion drive and a disincentive to digital transformation agenda.
In the 2025/26 Mid-Year Budget Review last November, Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Decentralisation introduced a bank transfer levy at 0.05 percent on all bank transfers to be incurred by the sender and a mobile money transfer levy of 0.05 percent on transactions above K100 000 paid by the sender.
This is on top of the mobile money service fees, which are transaction-based including fees for cash-outs and transfers, with 17.5 percent value added tax and 0.05 percent Malawi Revenue Authority levy applied.
Simwaka said there are issues of network in rural areas and charges on services.
He said: “We need to address these issues because the whole idea is to ensure that many Malawians are financially included.
“We also want to ensure that there is efficiency so that we cannot have high cost on issues where we want to have efficiency.”
Among others, the strategy seeks to increase financial inclusion levels from the current 88 percent of adult population to between 95 percent and 100 percent by 2030, having doubled from 45 percent to 88 percent in the last decade.
In separate interviews, industry operators and key stakeholders highlighted the need for collaboration to deal with bottlenecks such as electricity challenges, data network availability and high cost of infrastructure, which affect consumers’ connectivity and cost of transaction.
Digital Financial Services Association chairperson William Kaunda said there is need for collaboration between RBM and Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority to resolve electricity and data network challenges that are not aligned to the digital financial space.
In her remarks, Airtel Money managing director Thokozani Sande attributed the high cost of mobile money transactions to high cost of infrastructure.
“Infrastructure is also one that determines the costs because to deliver a digital transaction, there is infrastructure needed. As long as infrastructure cost is on the higher side, it will continue to affect the cost that is passed on to the customer,” she said.
TNM Mpamba general manager Chris Sukasuka commended the mobile money service intervention, which has enabled to cover 69 percent out of the 88 percent financial inclusion milestone the country has achieved in the past decade.
But he said high investment costs to necessitate digital payment services in rural areas are making the mobile money transaction high, but said the operators, stakeholders and regulators are engaging on the issue.
Bankers Association of Malawi chief executive officer Lyness Nkungula earlier said bank transfer levy will make almost all banking activities taxable, leaving customers to bear the costs.
The RBM National Payment Systems Report for 2025 indicated that the country’s payment landscape depicted mixed fortunes with both transaction volumes and values increasing .
