Airtel subscribers will start paying for goods and services through Safaricom’s Lipa na M-Pesa, enabling seamless money transfer through merchants attached to different operators.
Safaricom is set to launch interoperability -the ability of different IT systems to communicate and exchange data-this Friday to enable a seamless transfer of funds between the two rival networks.
“Lipa na M-Pesa will (have) interoperability between operators. It will benefit both consumers and operators,” a Top executive at Safaricom told a local newspaper.
Last month, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) revealed plans to launch a national payment gateway that would compel Safaricom to accept payment from rival firms such as Airtel on its Lipa na M-Pesa feature to enable seamless transactions.
According to the CBK, the lack of interconnection among telecommunications operators has hampered the rising use of mobile money by agents and merchants via platforms such as Lipa na M-Pesa.
The move also aims to curtail Safaricom’s dominance in the mobile money service and payment gateway which reportedly handled payments worth Sh970.2 in the financial year to January 2022.
However, it is still not clear how the service will be used or packaged for users. Lipa na M-pesa is normally free for customers except for payments at the Petrol Station. According to Safaricom’s website, business owners are charged a maximum of 0.5 per cent or a maximum of Sh200 for every transaction for money collected at the till.
The new system will remove the hurdle where Airtel subscribers, for example, cannot pay for goods and services through Safaricom’s till and pay-bill numbers. The details on pricing were however not available.
Read also; Banks Urge CBK to Restore Mpesa Charges.
