Mpayer is a cloud based payment service that enables business, organisations and individuals to pay for goods and services using mobile money by helping their firms get pay bill numbers and mobile point of sale payment solutions.
According to Kariuki Gathitu, Mpayer’s mission is to give both merchants and clients ample payment solutions.
He says, “Mpayer helps local business, organisations and shoppers accept and manage cash or mobile money payments in real-time and get customer feedback.”
He adds that the POS and pay bill numbers can be integrated into any financial system in real-time.
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Mpayer also helps users discern payment through Mpayer’s complex algorithm that allows smart billing and has account focused and client focused payments. This avoids confusion in payments through mobile money and cash. It also helps users adhere to accounting best practices by relating payments to customers along with valuable statistical analysis and reports apart from it helping them go green via paperless and cashless transactions. The system prides to help users give their customers immediate peace of mind through direct payment notifications, quick statements of transactions from any financial system.
Mpayer is a product of Zege Technologies, a Kenyan financial software development firm founded by Kariuki Gathitu in 2010 and based in Nairobi.
Gathitu says he was inspired by complicated processes buyers could go through to pay for products both online and offline even with the advent of mobile money transfers. So in 2010 he founded the firm to give SME’s pay bill numbers and mobile money point of sales solutions and help take transactions paperless.
Mpayer works on web, mobile and as a point of sale service physically or as integration on ecommerce web sites. Mpayer costs between 10000 and 5000 shillings per month depending on package while notification SMS’s are charged between 1 and 2 shillings per SMS.
The startup’s system is secured with SSL encryption from GeoTrust Certificate Autority and WSSE API Private Key Authentication both international security standards. The system is also password protected to avoid mobile money fraud.
The founder says Mpayer’s complex algorithm simplifies payments and can identify bills or payments if they are account-focused or client-focused payments. It also sends notifications, reports and statements of all the transactions done.
Zege Technologies focuses on financial solutions software for mobile, web and point of sale integration. The firm is self funded and is now serving over 50 SME’s and three corporate firms.
Kariuki says the system helps businesses retain customers, subscribe more and makes payments easier.
The firm has also introduced Pay For Us, a payment tracking system for Saccos or Chamas and is being used by over 40 groups. The Chamas or investment groups can collect money via mobile money, allow members to query the use or transactions, see balances and get notifications on when the next contribution is due.
The Pay For Us system, which runs on both web and Android is set to change how chamas run and will help Chama members follow every transaction in their group according to Stella Njoki, a consultant at Zegetech.
The Pay For Us service which is still in pilot runs on Mpayer system with a move to digitise all transactions. Apart from the mobile point of sale systems, Pay For Us uses Mpayer’s Cashbox which helps users see and follow their transactions on the go. A shopkeeper using Mpayer can see who are his or her best customers, the best day the shop had highest orders, which of his or her suppliers haven’t been paid and what good he is supposed to restock.
According to Njoki, “The Cashbox shows transactions, sales, orders, invoices issued, list of clients with their contacts, bills to be paid and trends and profits. Users can also get feedback from their clients, give offers or simply use it as a customer service too.”
She adds that Mpayer’s role of digitising business whether online or offline is helping clients save time, money and avoid staff fraud.
Mpayer enables instant payments via paybill numbers, mobile point of sales systems for all mobile money services.
Kariuki says the firm has over 70 active clients and some of the clients have over six branches bringing the physical number to over 200 businesses. He says, Mpayer sees no competition as it is doing more than just integrating mobile money payments as the Mpayer system allows businesses to monitor transactions in the cloud on the go.
The Pay For Us, customised for investment groups will also enable members pay for their contributions and follow the transactions simply in the cloud. It also helps trustee to inform group members what the money is being invested in, They can also sent basic notifications like when the next meeting is and where and what will be discussed.
