Visa, the payment technology firm and Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile operator, have partnered to support digital payments for M-PESA customers.
The Visa-Safaricom deal will cover over 24 million M-PESA customers, more than 173,000 Lipa Na M-PESA merchants from Safaricom and more than 61 million merchant locations throughout Visa’s global network, and over 3.4 billion Visa cards in more than 200 countries and territories, subject to regulatory approval.
“We are delighted to partner with Visa in exploring products that will support both our customers and Lipa Na M-PESA merchants. This partnership will play an important role in delivering even more value to our customers, linking them to even more opportunities especially in global e-commerce,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.” Cashless payments continue to grow in popularity driven by increased globalization and digitization further creating demand for more innovative services.”
This joint effort seeks to eliminate barriers to global commerce and offer an expanded set of mobile e-commerce capabilities to merchants and consumers by enabling secure and convenient cashless payment solutions.
Just recently, Visa partnered with Pesapal to drive connected digital payments to consumers and businesses in Africa. The deal will see Pesapal become a Visa Principal Member driving small business acquiring and issuing for both ecommerce, Point of Sale and Consumer applications on one platform.
Safaricom and M-PESA have already transformed millions of everyday lives throughout Africa and put Kenya on the map as a global leader in mobile money. Visa now aims to help the telco give its users safe, and convenient financial solution for eCommerce.
“We are very excited to work with Safaricom and leverage our combined assets to broaden our offering to a larger number of merchants and consumers especially as governments and communities are increasingly focused on cashless and remote payments. We envision that our combined efforts in enabling seamless and interoperable financial services and products will eventually drive much desired financial inclusion in our communities,” said Corine Mbiaketcha, Vice President and General Manager for Visa in East Africa.
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