Carrefour, the world’s second largest hypermarket chain, has today become the first retailer in Kenya to fully integrate Safaricom’s payments service – Lipa Na M-PESA – paving the way for the retailer to fully adopt M-PESA as a payments channel in Kenya.
With this development, customers shopping at Carrefour will be able to complete payments without having to show evidence of an M-PESA message to retail staff, resulting in a faster and more efficient cashless transaction at the till.
At the same time, Carrefour joins more than 44,000 merchants actively using Lipa Na M-PESA in the country.
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“As we continue to progress our strategy to position Lipa Na M-PESA as a payment channel, Carrefour seamless integration will result in heightened convenience and ease of shopping for M-PESA users. The digitization of payments at the till will remove the need for manual verification, fast-tracking payment time and enhancing convenience,” said Bob Collymore, CEO, Safaricom.
To pay, customers will go to their Lipa Na M-PESA menu, select Buy Goods and services, then enter the till number and amount. After verifying the payment with their M-PESA PIN, customers will then immediately receive a receipt.
Carrefour (which means “crossroads” in French) currently occupies 5,000 square metres at The Hub in Karen, with plans to open a second outlet at the Two Rivers Mall.
Lipa Na M-PESA continues to drive ease of payments at a growing footprint of outlets across the country. Over Kshs. 20 billion in payments was made in March 2016 at more than 44,000 M-PESA merchants, an increase of 74% in the same period.