20 news stories.
• Should Safaricom be in the NFCW Expo? Is this your organisation? Find out how to get your NFCW Expo showcase.
• Should Safaricom be in the NFCW Expo? Is this your organisation? Find out how to get your NFCW Expo showcase.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has launched a standard for the generation of QR codes in the country’s retail payments sector as the first phase of a nationwide rollout of a universal QR code payments system... More
Passengers using Matatu minibus services in Kenya will no longer be able to pay their fares with cash once a digital fare collection system commissioned by the country’s National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) is rolled out... More
Safaricom and Visa join forces in seeking to expand access to digital payments for M-Pesa consumers and merchants — Safaricom — “The partnership will cover over 24 million M-Pesa customers, more than 173,000 Lipa Na M-Pesa merchants from Safaricom and more than 61m merchant locations throughout Visa’s global network, and over 3.4bn Visa cards in more than 200 countries and territories, subject to regulatory approval.”
Safaricom, Alibaba unit agree mobile payments partnership — Bloomberg — “The deal extends Safaricom customers’ ability to use its mobile money service, known as M-Pesa, outside Kenya as the company looks to establish the system as a global platform.”
One of the world’s biggest mobile money services wants to become a social network — Quartz — “The messaging service, known as Bonga (which means “to chat” in colloquial Swahili), was partially launched on April 26, in closed beta testing for select users on Android devices, according to documents seen by Quartz. The app will allow users to review their balance on M-Pesa, besides letting customers transact money without leaving the platform.”
Christmas comes early for Safaricom’s mobile app as it receives the much awaited “big” update — Android Kenya — “Safaricom’s mobile application, dubbed mySafaricom, is receiving a huge update… Smartphones with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology should be in a position to transact using M-Pesa 1 Tap, the latest upgrade to M-Pesa that lets users pay for items at retail outlets and elsewhere via a single ‘tap’, much like Android Pay and Samsung Pay are used for in the markets where they are available.”
Safaricom extends M-Pesa 1Tap — Safaricom — “Following successful trials over the last four months in Nakuru, Safaricom has today announced the availability of M-Pesa 1Tap in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret and Nyeri… To make a payment, a merchant will key in the payment amount into their device, tap the customer tag, and the customer will then key in their pin on their phone to validate the payment. This cuts down the steps involved from more than eight steps using the M-Pesa tool on SIM cards to just one step for the customer.”
M-Pesa pioneer Michael Joseph, founding CEO of Safaricom and now director of mobile money at Vodafone Group, explains how the service works and the lessons learned from building and deploying one of the world’s most successful mobile money services in an in-depth Q&A that is now available to download free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Payments experts from the European Banking Authority, Yandex, Vodafone, Orange, Dejamobile and Wirecard are among eight contributors to What’s New in Payments: Volume Two, a 76-page special report on the future of payments which is now available to download free of charge from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Safaricom to upgrade M-Pesa to new platform — Safaricom — “Following the upgrade, M-Pesa customers are set to benefit from an increase in the number of partners offering their services on the enhanced M-Pesa platform. This will be made possible through a new set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that will simplify the process of integration into M-Pesa, cutting down the time it takes from weeks to a few days, or even hours.”
Safaricom, Vodacom deal clears the path for M-Pesa growth — Business Daily Africa — “The African subsidiary of British multinational Vodafone is set to take over 35 per cent ownership of Safaricom in a share swap deal that could pave the way for a more rapid spread of M-Pesa across the continent.”
Safaricom’s NFC powered M-Pesa 1 Tap payments solution is now official — Techweez — “Payment has been simplified because you will only need to have a card or the NFC sticker on your phone or the wristband. So far, M-Pesa 1 Tap already has over 13,000 customers who were signed up within a week in Nakuru.”
More than 150,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Kenya will be able to accept in-store mobile payments using QR code technology in 2017, using Mastercard’s Masterpass QR platform... More
Kenyan carrier Safaricom is trialling an NFC card with university students that enables them to make payments with a tap at any contactless terminal using their M-Pesa mobile money accounts... More
Kenyan carrier Safaricom is testing a new PIN-based NFC-enabled ‘Tap-and-Go’ card for its M-Pesa mobile money service... More
Revenue from mobile money transfer services will hit US$2bn this year, doubling to $4bn by 2018, Juniper Research says, citing Africa as the market leader... More
Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom has now signed up 122,000 merchants for Lipa na M-Pesa, a service launched in June 2013 that enables Kenyan consumers to use the funds stored in their M-Pesa mobile money account to pay for goods in stores... More
Kenyan carrier Safaricom is to add NFC payment capabilities to its flagship M-Pesa mobile money service, according to Techmoran.”Still undergoing the tendering process, the NFC SIM cards are expected to be rolled out to its subscribers for mobile contactless payments and transactions making Safaricom the first mobile operator in the region to mass deploy SIM-based NFC for contactless transactions,” the report says... More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: M-Pesa revenues soar • Google Offers trial gets underway • Tyfone expands team • NXP’s partner programme • SVB picks EMV • British consumers ‘not comfortable’ with location-based services • SCM launches plug-in NFC reader • Elephant Talk to unveil NFC mobile wallet platform • and more… More
News in brief from the NFC world and beyond: Czech mobile payments • Akbank pushes contactless • Visa opens up • The rich love a bargain • Germany moves to contactless ID • mFoundy’s mobile banking guarantee • Amsterdam shops to refuse cash • Starbucks expands 2D payments • M-Pesa adds supermarkets • WiFi goes P2P • and more… More