Organizations will now have the ability to track the money they have been sending through mobile money solutions to their beneficiaries, thanks to the new product launched by Safaricom dubbed ‘M-PESA SurePay’.
SurePay is a closed loop payment system designed for corporate and Public Benefit Organizations (PBO’s) which disburse funds directly to beneficiaries. The solution will allow for the funding organization to place restrictions to be placed on where the money is spent.
Safaricom Financial Services General Manager Betty Mwangi said the solution will also allow fund managers to trace the entire value chain right from disbursement to expenditure of the funds.
Among the beneficiaries of the solution include the World Food Programme (WFP) who is using M-PESA SurePay to send food vouchers to beneficiaries in five food-scarce counties around the country.
WFP will now able to ensure that the cash sent to the beneficiaries is only used to pay for food and is also able to monitor how much is left as a balance as well as ensure it is spent in designated stores.
M-PESA SurePay will also benefit organizations that pay salaries for staff that live in areas that are not covered effectively by financial institutions, and will soon be used to disburse loans to farmers who need to buy inputs.
The introduction of the M-PESA SurePay comes as Safaricom’s drive towards a CashLite economy picks up pace with the planned deployment of a new M-PESA platform that will support up to 600 transactions per second, and pave way for deeper integration with other Financial Service systems.