Safaricom has announced a new service that will enable house rent payers to submit their monthly dues through mobile money payment, MPesa dubbed Lipa Kodi.
The service will be charge at Kshs 5 from rent amount of Kshs 5,000 to Kshs 220 for upwards of Kshs70,000 rent. This rent range seems to be targeting the small income earners who usually pay through cash or have to do cash deposits.
The service that aims to sell the idea to home agents and owners is targeting to enter into the real estate sector that is quite lucrative in Kenya. It is estimated that the sector is valued at Kshs 17.2 billion.
This new drive complements other MPesa related services including, Lipa na Mpesa, which aims to recruit businesses, small and large to use their services.
Manyatta Rent a Kenyan startup is also offering similar services in addition to free software for management for businesses. The startup uses MPesa to help landlords collect rent from their tenants and charges a small fee for every transaction done.
It is yet to be seen if this new MPesa product will pull the carpet off the young startup or Manyatta Rent will be able to ride on this new wave to increase its market share.
MPesa’s competitor, Airtel Money on the other hand is busy recruiting banks and other companies to encourage the use of their product and increase their user base.
In Kenya, it is not enough anymore to just provide money transfer services. It has to be relevant to the general money transactions.