Nairobi, Jan. 4 -- Effective January 1, 2023, commercial banks in Kenya are re-introducing charges for transactions between mobile money wallets and bank accounts, which were waived on March 16, 2020, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The waiver, largely intended to encourage cashless transactions in the face of the pandemic, did produce some results.

Statistics from the Central Bank of Kenya showed that the ratio of currency outside banks to total money supply averaged six per cent since the first lockdown in March 2020, compared to seven per cent in 2019 (and eight per cent in 2018).

The ratio is usually not a precise measure of cashlessness but is a window to its soul. Nonetheless, from it, we get an idea that the population had...