NAIROBI, Kenya
Mobile phone service operator Safaricom has set sights on the medium and small enterprises with the launch of a new campaign to increase the use of its mobile payment service.
The Lipa Na M-Pesa initiative, which aims to make Safaricom mobile payment services primary tools of transactions, was launched today at its head office in Westlands, Nairobi, in a move that once again finds its rivals flat-footed. Through this service, customer can pay values between Sh10 and 70,000 free of charge.
M-PESA services include payment of salaries, pay bill, merchant payment collection service, retail distribution, bulk payments and transport solutions. Safaricom has simplified the registration process for the traders who will only be required to produce copies of a PIN certificate, Identification Card and trading license to get a till number.
Safaricom General Manager for Financial Services Betty Mwangi-Thuo noted that by adopting M-PESA as a primary tool of transaction, traders will not only have ready access to more than 17 million M-PESA customers but they will also be able to provide their customers with a safer and more convenient way of making payments. “By using the M-PESA payment services, traders will handle less cash and will therefore be less susceptible to risks associated with cash handling such as theft and fake currency.
In addition, Lipa Na M-ESA will also help traders enhance business efficiency,” said Ms Mwangu-Thuo. Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore noted that the widespread use of M-PESA was driving the country’s cash life economic agenda, which he said is a more secure and efficient method of transacting. He said the idea would transform the Kenyan business landscape.
“Lipa Na M-PESA is one of the ways through which we want to make money work in micro-transactions. We want the mama mboga to tell you that it is okay to pay for your sukuma via M-PESA. In the end, we want M-PESA to be celebrated not because it is a clever product but because it is a product that is giving practical solutions to everyday problems,” said Collymore The first phase of Lipa Na M-PESA is anchored on an aggressive countrywide recruitment targeting to enroll more than 100,000 small and medium sized businesses onto its merchant service by April 2014.
To use the Lipa Na M-PESA service for merchants, customers will be required to go to the M-PESA Menu, select Payments Services and select Buy Goods, then enter the Till Number that the merchants will display, and follow subsequent prompts to complete the transactions. Both the merchant and the customer will then get confirmation receipts from M-PESA.
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