Every Islamic bank and window in Kenya now banks by phone, but only DIB Bank Kenya publishes a full mobile tariff: KES 20 for an internal transfer, KES 40 to KES 60 to send money from your account to M-PESA, KES 250 for RTGS, nothing for airtime, all on the DIB app or 278#. [NBK National Amanah](/providers/nbk-amanah) customers use NatMobile on 625# with M-PESA paybills 625625 and 547700. KCB Sahl runs on the ordinary KCB Mobile App and *522#. Gulf African Bank offers GAB Express and GABNet but prints no USSD code or tariff on the pages we could load. The fees are service charges, which Shari'ah permits; the danger is the conventional loan button that sits next to them in a parent bank's app.
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Why mobile banking is a Shari'ah non-issue, and the loan button is not
A fee for moving money, buying airtime or paying KPLC is an ujrah, a payment for a service, and it is permissible whether the bank is Islamic or not. The transaction charge does not grow with time or depend on a debt, so it is not riba. What a Muslim customer must watch is what else the same screen offers. The KCB Mobile App's own 2026 guide lists mobile loans and salary advances under Borrow, and KCB M-PESA sits a tap away; a Sahl customer who takes one of those has stepped out of the Islamic window. NatMobile's parent menu similarly serves National Bank's conventional products alongside Amanah accounts.
Standalone banks avoid the problem by design. DIB Bank Kenya and Gulf African have no conventional product to show you, so every button in their apps is Shari'ah compliant by default. That is the strongest practical argument for keeping daily banking at a standalone bank even if you also hold a window account for reach. For the broader question of which accounts to hold, our Islamic bank accounts hub lists the options; our guide to whether mobile loans are halal in Kenya covers Fuliza, M-Shwari and the rest.
DIB Bank Kenya: the only published mobile tariff
DIB Bank Kenya's mobile banking page is the most complete disclosure in the market. You register at the branch or tick the service on the account opening form, receive credentials by SMS and email after document verification, download the DIB Bank Kenya app from the Android or iOS store, and set a password. Registration is free. The USSD channel *278# works on Safaricom and Airtel and covers balance and mini statement, airtime to any network, transfers to M-PESA or Airtel Money, KPLC postpaid and prepaid, DSTV, GOtv, Zuku and Nairobi Water, internal transfers and deposits via paybill 342342.
The published charges, exclusive of excise duty, are KES 20 for an internal funds transfer, KES 250 for RTGS, KES 40 for an account-to-M-PESA transfer of KES 50 to 1,000, KES 50 for KES 1,001 to 1,500, KES 60 for KES 1,501 to 70,000, KES 40 for Airtel B2C, KES 50 for a utility payment and nil for airtime. Limits are KES 70,000 per transaction and KES 140,000 per day to M-PESA or Airtel Money, KES 250,000 per transaction and KES 500,000 per day for internal transfers, and KES 250,000 per transaction with KES 300,000 per day for RTGS and PesaLink. Transfers are available only from Kenya shilling current accounts, and loan accounts cannot be viewed in the app.
One line on the DIB page is stale. It warns that an M-PESA wallet can hold at most KES 100,000. Safaricom's current tariff page, updated 4 August 2026, gives the maximum M-PESA balance as KES 500,000, with a KES 500,000 daily limit and KES 250,000 per transaction. Treat DIB's figure as an old note rather than a live restriction, and treat the mismatch as a reminder that even the best tariff page needs a date check.
NBK National Amanah: NatMobile on *625#
National Bank's NatMobile runs on *625# from any SIM registered with Safaricom or Airtel, needing at least KES 2 of airtime per session, and as an app on Google Play, Huawei AppGallery and the App Store; iPhone users activate the app through the USSD menu first. Amanah Taifa and Amanah Vision account holders use the same platform as every other National Bank customer. Services listed on the page include balance enquiry across registered accounts, account-to-M-PESA and Airtel transfers to your own or another number, PesaLink bank-to-bank transfers, SMS alerts, and payments to KPLC, SHA, NSSF, KRA, eCitizen, Nairobi Water and school fees.
Deposits into an NBK account arrive via PesaLink from another bank, M-PESA paybill 625625 or 547700, Airtel paybill 625625, or a till linked to the account. NatCash lets you withdraw at a bank agent without a card, and agents can buy M-PESA float through the menu. The page links a tariff PDF rather than printing charges, so you will need to open Tariff_Charges.pdf on nationalbank.co.ke for the per-transaction cost. Registration is at a branch with your identification document, and a forgotten password also means a branch visit.
KCB Sahl: the KCB Mobile App and *522#
KCB Sahl products ride on KCB's mainstream digital stack. KCB's mobile banking page asks for a valid Kenyan ID or passport and a KRA PIN certificate, and its 2026 beginner's guide explains that existing 522# users register the app against the same account with a fresh PIN, verifying with an account number or debit card plus national ID. The app's quick actions are Send to Mobile, Send to Bank, Pay, and Deposit or Withdraw, with sections for bills, financial services, global transfers, money management, accounts and profile. Lipa na KCB till payments are free from the app or 522#, and transaction limits depend on your KYC tier, upgraded at a branch.
KCB does not print a bank-to-M-PESA charge on the pages we fetched, so the cost of moving money off a Sahl account to a wallet is a tariff-guide question. The Sahl Debit card page is clearer: zero fees at Visa point-of-sale terminals, 3D Secure online, and Simba Points on purchases. The Bankika Personal Account page adds that a Sahl customer gets one free standing order into a Sahl Simba savings account and KES 50 EFT or salary processing. The guide's Borrow section covers mobile loans and salary advances; those are KCB's conventional products and a Sahl customer should treat the section as absent.
Gulf African Bank: GAB Express and GABNet
Gulf African Bank's home page headlines GAB Express as banking made mobile and GABNet as secure digital banking, and it has a dedicated M-PESA paybill page. The paybill page and the mobile banking page both loaded without content for us, so we cannot confirm the USSD code, the paybill number or the fee schedule from the site. GABNet's internet banking page does describe batch salary and supplier payments, statement spooling to PDF or Excel, real-time rates and card or chequebook requests, with retail customers self-registering by email to customer care and receiving credentials by email.
What Gulf African does publish is relevant to mobile users: its salary account bundles the first ten transactions a month into a KES 300 fee with KES 30 per transaction thereafter, and the diaspora current account charges KES 30 per transaction on a pay-as-you-go basis, both exclusive of excise duty. Its FAQ confirms that where there is no branch you can deposit cash and cheques at National Bank and Co-operative Bank branches. For the paybill number and app fees, call +254 711 075 000 or ask at a branch rather than trusting a third-party listing.
Absa La Riba and Premier Bank: what is and is not published
Absa La Riba stands out at the front door rather than in the app: the La Riba One and La Riba Current pages let you open a KES or USD account online with an original Kenyan national ID and a front camera, and La Riba One prices every transaction at KES 50 with no maintenance fee. Absa's rates and fees page links a tariff guide and a separate bank-to-wallet charges document rather than printing numbers, so the cost of an Absa-to-M-PESA transfer sits in that PDF. Premier Bank Kenya's website was unreachable on the day we checked, so its app and USSD details could not be verified; our Premier Bank profile is the place to start.
| Bank | App | USSD | M-PESA deposit route | Published mobile tariff? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIB Bank Kenya | DIB Bank Kenya app | *278# (Safaricom, Airtel) | Paybill 342342 | Yes, on the page |
| NBK Amanah | NatMobile | *625# | Paybill 625625 or 547700 | PDF link |
| KCB Sahl | KCB Mobile App | *522# | KCB M-PESA in app | Not on pages fetched |
| Gulf African Bank | GAB Express | Not shown | Paybill page did not load | No |
| Absa La Riba | Absa app (online onboarding) | Not shown | In bank-to-wallet PDF | PDF link |
| Premier Bank Kenya | Site unreachable | Site unreachable | Site unreachable | Unknown |
The M-PESA side of the equation
Moving money between a bank and M-PESA costs twice: once on the bank's tariff and once on Safaricom's. Safaricom's tariff page updated 4 August 2026 charges KES 7 to send KES 101 to 500 to another M-PESA user, KES 13 for KES 501 to 1,000, KES 33 for KES 1,501 to 2,500 and KES 108 for anything above KES 20,001, while agent withdrawals run from KES 11 for KES 50 to 100 up to KES 309 for KES 50,001 to 250,000. Transfers of KES 1 to 100 are free. Safaricom's own FAQ notes that excise duty on mobile money transfer fees rose from 12% to 15% under the Finance Act 2023.
The practical lesson is to batch. One DIB transfer of KES 20,000 to M-PESA costs KES 60 plus excise, and then paying several bills from the wallet costs more each time; paying KPLC or school fees directly from the bank app, which DIB, NBK and KCB all support, skips the second fee entirely. If you bank at Gulf African or Absa, ask for the bank-to-wallet tariff before you adopt a habit that costs KES 100 a week. Our note on what a halal banking relationship should look like covers how to keep the wallet as a payment rail and the bank as the store of value.
Security habits the banks themselves ask for
- Install only from the official Google Play, Huawei AppGallery or Apple App Store listing, as KCB and NBK both instruct, and never from a link sent to you.
- Never share a PIN, password or one-time password with anyone, including a caller claiming to be the bank; KCB and NBK both state they will never ask for them.
- Register the app on one device, since KCB notes the app is bound to a single phone and logs out after inactivity.
- If your phone is lost, call the bank's contact centre and your mobile operator at once; NBK gives 020 282 8900 and KCB gives +254 711 087 000.
- Keep your KYC documents current, because KCB ties your transaction limit to your KYC tier and a branch visit is needed to raise it.
Our view
If your priority is to see every mobile charge before you pay it, DIB Bank Kenya is the only Islamic bank in Kenya that passes the test today, and its *278# channel works on a basic phone on either major network. If you need reach and the richest bill-payment menu, KCB Sahl on the KCB Mobile App is the practical answer, with the discipline of never opening the Borrow section. NBK Amanah's NatMobile is a solid USSD-first option for Taifa account holders who pay SHA, NSSF and school fees by phone.
Gulf African Bank's depositors get the market's best rate transparency and, for now, the weakest published mobile detail; ask for the GAB Express tariff and paybill in writing. Absa La Riba wins on opening an account from your sofa and loses on hiding wallet charges in a PDF. Whatever you choose, pay bills from the bank app rather than via M-PESA where you can, and keep the wallet for what it is good at. Facts checked against dibkenya.co.ke, nationalbank.co.ke, ke.kcbgroup.com, gulfafricanbank.com, absabank.co.ke, safaricom.co.ke on 29 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is it halal to pay mobile banking fees?
Yes. A fixed charge for a service such as a transfer, bill payment or airtime purchase is an ujrah, a fee for work done, and does not depend on time or on a debt, so it is not riba. The fee is permissible whether the bank is Islamic or conventional. What matters is that you do not use the same app to take an interest-based loan or earn interest on a balance.
What is the USSD code for DIB Bank Kenya mobile banking?
DIB Bank Kenya's USSD code is *278#, available on Safaricom and Airtel. The service covers balance and mini statement, airtime, transfers to M-PESA and Airtel Money, utility payments and internal transfers, and you fund the account from M-PESA via paybill 342342. Registration happens at a branch or on the account opening form and is free.
How do I use KCB Sahl banking on my phone?
Use the standard KCB Mobile App or dial 522#. Register with your KCB account number or debit card and national ID; if you already use 522# you register the app against the same account with a new PIN. Pay bills, buy airtime and pay Lipa na KCB tills for free. Avoid the Borrow section, which offers KCB's conventional mobile loans and salary advances.
What is the paybill for NBK Amanah accounts?
National Bank's mobile banking page lists M-PESA paybill numbers 625625 and 547700, and Airtel paybill 625625, for deposits into any NBK account including Amanah Taifa and Amanah Vision. You can also receive PesaLink transfers from other banks. NatMobile itself is on *625# or the NatMobile app.
Does Gulf African Bank have a mobile banking app?
Gulf African Bank promotes GAB Express as its mobile banking service and GABNet as internet banking, and it maintains an M-PESA paybill page. The mobile and paybill pages did not load content when we checked, so the USSD code, paybill number and fees could not be verified. Call +254 711 075 000 or ask at a branch for the current tariff.
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How much does it cost to send money from a bank to M-PESA in Kenya?
It depends on the bank. DIB Bank Kenya publishes KES 40 for KES 50 to 1,000, KES 50 for KES 1,001 to 1,500 and KES 60 for KES 1,501 to 70,000, excluding excise duty. KCB, NBK, Absa and Gulf African keep the figure in tariff PDFs or did not publish it on the pages fetched. Once in the wallet, Safaricom's own tariffs apply to onward sends and withdrawals.
