KCB Bank Kenya and Visa on Thursday announced a partnership to introduce a Tap-to-Phone contactless payment service that will allow merchants to accept card payments on NFC-enabled Android smartphones, eliminating the need for traditional point-of-sale terminals.
KCB said the technology is expected to cut the cost of digital payment acceptance for small and medium-sized enterprises that often face high upfront expenses to acquire POS hardware.
“This collaboration with Visa brings to life a powerful solution that gives every merchant the ability to accept digital payments using just a smartphone,” said Jane Isiaho, KCB Bank Kenya’s director of retail banking.
The service runs on the Visa Acceptance Platform and uses tokenization to secure transactions, the bank said.
John Njoroge, Visa’s country manager for Kenya, South Sudan and Somalia, said the rollout would help expand access to “safe, fast and affordable” payment acceptance tools for businesses.
The initiative forms part of KCB’s broader strategy to grow digital channels as Kenya deepens its transition toward a cash-lite economy.