M-pesa has been one of the most convenient mobile banking systems in Kenya. It has been known to be one of the most effective ways to send money. It was launched in 2007 by Vodafone for Safaricom . So far the great network has been operating in Kenya and Tanzania. It has also proved to not have any barriers when it was later moved to Afghanistan, South Africa, India and Albania. M-pesa allows users to deposit, transfer, withdraw money and pay for goods and services. Most Kenyan companies highly rely on M-pesa for payments and transactions. For a while now other networks have not yet managed to be a major threat or competition to the leading network in Kenya. But there seems to be a new competitor in the market. Visa has finally launched their mobile payments solution known as mVisa in Kenya and their new partners are the well-known banks KCB, co-operative Bank, Family bank and NIC bank.
One of the major problems in Africa has been the banking systems which have hindered some foreign companies from entering our markets. The visa system is a fairly new one in Africa but the concept seems to be rapidly growing. The mVisa system is a service that allows users to receive and make payments on their smartphones either by using supplier’s phone numbers or by simply using the QR codes. Kenya happens to be one of the first African countries, to implement this new service. Since Kenya has one of the largest money diffusion rates in Africa it makes sense why Visa would tap into this particular market.
Visa has also been known for its security, reliability as well as Global acceptance. The well trusted service would accelerate commerce in Africa and surpass all other limitations. This will also mean that Kenyans will at least have a better way to pay and to be paid since the service is not limited by the user’s handset or mobile network. M-pesa has been Kenya’s great network for some time now and now that it has a competitor it will be an interesting challenge for the network.