Tanzania, July 15 -- Last Thursday, Kenya's Parliament made a decision that should be studied across East Africa. By a vote of 122 to 40, the National Assembly rejected a proposal in the Finance Bill 2026 to introduce a 16 per cent VAT on peer-to-peer mobile money transfers, explicitly citing the risk to financial inclusion.

The bill, which would have subjected M-Pesa and Airtel Money fees to VAT for the first time, drew opposition from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), professional bodies like the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), and payment service providers including Safaricom, and Airtel Kenya, who warned it would drive users back to cash, what the KBA's CEO cal...