Safaricom and Visa have partnered to enable the development of products that will support digital payments for M-PESA customers.
The partnership 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.
With this joint effort, Visa and Safaricom will seek 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.
“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.”
On his part, Andrew Torre – President of Visa Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA)- insisted that the deal will improve payment experiences for consumers and businesses everywhere.
“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. We are thrilled to work together on the next stage of their journey, bringing safe, and convenient financial services to all, Mr. Torre said.
In April, VISA struck an almost similar deal with Pesapal to drive connected digital payments to consumers and businesses in Africa. The partnership will enable more small businesses to accept Visa payments across different form factors: Visa QR, MPos, Mini POS and POS.. For consumers, this partnership means that all users of Pesapal Mobile will be able to use universal Visa QR capabilities and then Visa Token Service to make contactless payments.
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