What's New in Payments

Safaricom to launch messaging service that leverages M-Pesa for payments

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.”


What's New in Payments

Safaricom adds NFC payments to M-Pesa mobile money service

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.”


What's New in Payments

M-Pesa rolls out contactless tags and wristbands for faster mobile money transactions in stores

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.”


What's New in Payments

M-Pesa founder shares lessons learned from ten years of mobile money

Vodafone's Michael Joseph

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


Sub-Saharan Africa driving global market for mobile money

Sub-Saharan Africa driving global market for mobile money — GSMA — “The new study points to a decade of growth in mobile money services in the region following the launch of M-Pesa in Kenya in 2007. It notes that there are now seven markets in the region where more than 40% of adults are active mobile money users: Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.”


What's New in Payments

What’s New in Payments 2: Special report sets out the latest thinking on the future of payments — free of charge

What's New in Payments, Volume Two

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


What's New in Payments

Safaricom to upgrade M-Pesa to new platform

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.”











NFC World

Safaricom to add NFC to M-Pesa?

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