A customer recently called us, frustrated.
“I sent money to my KiiBank account. Now I’m trying to send it to mobile money, and I’m being charged a fee. But when I send to another KiiBank account, there’s no fee. Why?”
Our team explained calmly: the fee is charged by the mobile money operator. We simply pass it through.
But the customer wasn’t convinced.
From their perspective, the logic felt inconsistent.
Inside one ecosystem, transfers are free.
Inside another, they are not.
And once the funds arrive in mobile money, more fees apply — for withdrawal or onward transfers.
To the user, it feels like friction layered on friction.
What made this interesting was not the complaint itself.
It was the expectation.
The customer had seen how we structure internal transfers — clean, predictable, transparent. And they immediately assumed the same logic should apply everywhere.
This is what happens when users experience simplicity once.
They begin to question complexity elsewhere.
As founders and system designers, there are moments when we cannot fully explain another operator’s pricing structure. We do not control their economics.
But we can control one thing: how transparent we are.
We can make it clear where a fee originates.
We can avoid hidden layering.
We can design flows that show users the true cost before they proceed.
Interoperability in Africa’s financial ecosystem is essential.
But interoperability without fee transparency creates distrust.
The deeper question is not whether fees exist.
It is whether the customer understands why they exist — and who is charging them.
Because once trust is eroded, it is not the operator who loses first.
It is the entire ecosystem.
How do we build cross-ecosystem financial systems in Africa that are transparent and not confusing? I’m interested in hearing thoughtful perspectives.
hashtag#DigitalBanking hashtag#FinTechAfrica hashtag#FinancialInfrastructure hashtag#ProductDesign hashtag#KiiBank
