Safaricom and payments firm Pesapal are rolling out new checkout options that allow Kenyan consumers to pay merchants by scanning QR codes or tapping NFC-enabled smartphones on point-of-sale terminals.
The partnership brings Safaricom’s M-PESA payment services together with Pesapal’s merchant payment infrastructure, adding Dynamic Scan-to-Pay and Tap-to-Pay capabilities to Pesapal’s point-of-sale devices.
The move comes as Safaricom seeks to push M-PESA beyond traditional mobile-money transactions and into more seamless digital checkout experiences.
With Dynamic Scan-to-Pay, customers scan a QR code displayed on a Pesapal POS device. The merchant details and payment amount are automatically populated, allowing the customer to verify the transaction before completing the payment.
Tap-to-Pay offers another route for customers with NFC-enabled smartphones. Users can tap their devices against a Pesapal POS, verify the transaction details and complete the payment.
“As the way Kenyans shop and transact continues to evolve, we are focused on ensuring that M-PESA evolves with them,” James Maitai, Safaricom’s group chief technology officer, said in the statement. He said the partnership is intended to combine the companies’ capabilities to reshape everyday payments.
Pesapal founder Agosta Liko said the new services are aimed at reducing friction at checkout for businesses using its platform.
“Tap-to-Pay and Scan-to-Pay on the Pesapal POS represent the biggest leap in Kenya’s checkout experience in years,” Liko said.
Safaricom is also adding an artificial-intelligence feature to M-PESA through My OneApp, which has more than 7 million downloads.
AI Pay allows users to scan a receipt, including a printed or handwritten receipt, and automatically identify and populate the relevant Till or PayBill details and payment amount where the information is available. The feature is designed to reduce manual entry when making payments.
Safaricom said Scan-to-Pay is already available at more than 60,000 merchant outlets and that it aims to expand the service to 500,000 outlets over the next year. The rollout will coincide with the expansion of Pesapal’s POS footprint.
The developments extend Safaricom’s push to deepen M-PESA’s role in Kenya’s payments ecosystem. The company said M-PESA had 41 million customers as of its latest reporting period and generated more than 182.7 billion shillings ($1.4 billion) in revenue in fiscal 2026.
Pesapal operates across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia, providing payment and business-management infrastructure to merchants ranging from small businesses to larger enterprises.