Mobile money is popular in East Africa where it’s the axis of thousands of transactions for small and medium enterprises and retailers. However, this trend is set to change forever.
East Africa’s 3G Direct Pay Limited, an online payments service provider popular in the travel and tourism industry has partnered with Kopo Kopo, a mobile money merchant services platform in a move that will take mobile money to the online arena.
Eran Feinstein, Managing Director, 3G Direct Pay Limited said 3G Direct Pay Limited and Kopo Kopo will power East Africa’s travel providers with the option to accept online all modes of payment from credit cards, PayPal, and Mobile Money. 3G Direct Pay will power online payments as ussual but the new partner, Kopo Kopo will power the travel agents to accept mobile money. The service is available in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zanzibar.
Speaking to TechMoran, Feinstein said, “We looked for a single source for all mobile money operators in the region and Kopo Kopo provided us this solution. We are doing only online while Kopo Kopo is doing offline directly. We are taking their connectivity to the online arena.”
3G Direct Pay will be paying the normal transaction fees to Kopo Kopo. The Kopo Kopo platform creates a vital link in the mobile money ecosystem by allowing consumers to pay at the merchants of their choice, unlocking billions in potential demand. The firm makes it easy, inexpensive and convenient for a business to accept mobile money payments. The deal will see Kopo Kopo power merchants in the travel and tourism sector to receive payments via mobile money.
The system works simply. A customer visits the payment page (which is powered by 3G Direct Pay Limited), selects a mobile money option according to the country they are in, they client pays online using they mobile money account (powered by Kopo Kopo). 3G Direct Pay then provides real-time confirmation to the end customer about the transaction.
Mobile money integration by Kopo Kopo is an addition to 3G’s payment cards and electronic wallets such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and PayPal.
In an interview with TechMoran,Ben Lyon, Director Kopo Kopo said “The benefit of partnering with 3G Direct Pay is that they already serve some 600 businesses across East Africa, including over 20 airlines. By partnering with one another, we’re able to provide mobile money acceptance to hundreds of new businesses immediately.”
The relationship is very symbiotic and Kopo Kopo also hopes to offer 3G Direct Pay services to many of their customers just as they are helping 3G Direct Pay’s travel and tourism customers.
“In short, our mission remains the same: To help SMEs grow and prosper through software. Of the 10,000+ businesses we serve, many are starting to build an e-commerce presence. Given that they already work with us, we wanted to help them get started by expanding our service offering and partnerships,” concluded Ben.
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