Playing Catch Up, Posta Launches Its Own Version Of M-Pesa

The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has signed a partnership agreement with Viewtech, the company behind SasaPay, to offer mobile money transfer services through its electronic payment branded as PostaPay. Viewtech will provide Posta with wallet as a service (WaaS) that will facilitate money transfer services including disbursements, collections and sending of money between individuals for collection at the post office.

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“Under the agreement, Posta will be an agent of Viewtech Ltd, offering deposit, withdrawal, registration and verification services on PostaPay at a commission,” said Mr Dan Kagwe, the CEO and Postmaster General of Postal Corporation of Kenya during the signing of the deal on 7th October, 2022 .

The new and revamped PostaPay app will now be available on Google Play Store as Posta Kenya moves to respond to changing technologies. The mobile payments market is dominated by Safaricom through its M-Pesa platform, which supports various forms of transactions including utility payments. Airtel Money has also been getting into this market but has yet to break even.

SasaPay is one of the payment services providers licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. “The application will offer peer-to-peer transactions; these are electronic money transfers made from one person to another through intermediaries. There will also be business to customer disbursements and customer to business disbursements as well,” said Mr Stephen Kaguchia, the Managing Director of Viewtech Limited.

The revamped application was unveiled during the 147th World Post Day themed “Post for Planet” where the corporation also unveiled the Dugong commemorative stamp to sensitize the public on the need to protect the marine mammal that has been classified as rare under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act.

“The era of disbursing money physically is over; with this partnership you will be assured seamless connectivity across different platforms including financial institutions and retail outlets among others,” said Mr Kagwe. The application allows for payment of goods and services and transfer of money in a convenient way.

At a business and corporate, Mr Kagwe noted, the corporation would now be able to offer government and county disbursements and revenue collection services, loan disbursement for microfinance institutions and saccos as well as disbursement of government stipends, individual statutory remittances such as NHIF and NSSF.

“PostaPay will offer competitive transactional costs and real time visibility of revenue collection. It is our strategic intent to position Posta Kenya as the preferred payments partner for Government to People payments (G2P) and People to Government payments at affordable rates,” said Mr. Kagwe.

The corporation is looking to tap into the unbanked and underserved citizenry in the rural areas to play a key role in the expansion of financial inclusion and bridge the digital divide.

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