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This is How to Become an MPesa Agent with Safaricom

BY Soko Directory Team · May 8, 2019 08:05 am

Safaricom’s mobile money product M-Pesa is, without doubt, the telco’s biggest money-maker. This is a product that makes the business stand out and continue growing every day as other financial sectors report loses.

Just recently, Safaricom released their FY2019 and as expected, the company reported immense growth in profits. M-Pesa accounted for 75 percent of the overall growth in the year after registering a 19.2 percent jump year on year.

M-Pesa accounts for 31.2 percent of service revenues and according to Safaricom, the growth seen by M-Pesa is due to new businesses marked by payments, savings and lending (M-Shwari, Fuliza and KCB M-Pesa) as well as money transfer such as PayPal services that were introduced about a year ago.

Out of the new 2.3 million customers that Safaricom has registered, 2.1 million are active M-Pesa users and has 22.6 million active customers.

The numbers mentioned together with the kind of profits generated from M-Pesa tells how a lucrative business opportunity M-Pesa is. Being an M-Pesa agent will not only enable one to have made the best choice but also opened up great opportunities as far as entrepreneurship is concerned.

One may be having the idea of being an M-Pesa agent but they are stuck on how to go about the whole process. Here is a step by step process that will make it easy for anyone wishing to venture into the M-Pesa business as an agent.

READ ALSO: Safaricom, AliExpress Partnership Enables M-PESA Payments for Online Shoppers 

Would you like to be an agent of the biggest mobile service provider in Kenya? Read on.

What You Need to Get Started

To operate an M-Pesa shop as an agent, one is required to have a registered limited company in business for at least 6 months and have at least 3 outlets ready to offer MPESA services.

Minimum investment for an MPESA outlet is 100,000 shillings float.

One will also need to provide Safaricom with business permits for each of the MPESA outlets, VAT and tax certificates, ID’s, banking license from a reputable financial institution and police clearance certificates.

Fill in the M-Pesa agent head office application form and the M-Pesa agent store application form.

Once the forms have been submitted and met all the requirements, one will be given a till number that they will use.

How to run the Day to Day business

One can decide to run the M-Pesa business by themselves or alternatively employ someone to do it for them who holdsat least a KCSE certificate.

The M-Pesa premises also need to be branded according to guidelines from Safaricom. The day to day operations include;

  1. Depositing cash into registered customers M-Pesa accounts
  2. Processing cash withdrawals for registered M-Pesa customers
  • Processing cash withdrawals for non-registered M-Pesa customers
  1. Customer Education
  2. Compliance with Safaricom AML & KYC Policy
  3. Compliance with Safaricom business practices
  • Branding of their outlets as per provided guidelines

SEE ALSO: 13.4 Million Customers Outside Kenya Subscribed to M-Pesa 

Choose your preferred MPESA outlet

You can run your M-Pesa outlet in two ways;

Standard Outlet

This is the most recommended outlet since you have to go through the complete process above and be registered as an agent.

As a sub-dealer

Operating as a sub-dealer is much more affordable than registering as an agent. However, you will need to work under a licensed agent by buying their MPESA line and paying them a commission for using their lines. For sub-dealers, you only need a float of 20,000 – 40,000 shillings.

Volumes

The amount you can make in the M-Pesa business can be as low as 4 shillings per transaction, this, therefore, means that your business must be able to attract many people in order to make you substantial money.

This also means that you should set up your shop in a busy area where more people can visit your shop and access M-Pesa services.

Advantages of aggregated M-Pesa lines

Higher Commissions– with aggregated M-Pesa lines you will get the recommended Safaricom split commissions percentage i.e. 80 percent for you and 20 percent for your principal.

Direct payment of commission by Safaricom-You don’t have to wait on your principal to reimburse commissions, you get it directly from Safaricom into your working account by 1st of a new month and there are no delays in remittance of

Faster Conflict Resolutions– in some occasions there might be some issues with your principal or vice versa e.g. some uncouth principals might feel their leased lines aren’t performing well (getting fewer commissions than anticipated) and might want to reclaim them without your approval, Such scenarios are easily resolved if you are using aggregated line unlike non aggregated when the arrangement is informal.

Float Management– Aggregated lines come with a float management feature which enables you to easily manage your line/till e.g. by giving you an option to get cash from super agents (banks, certified super agents Mpesa outlets) by exchanging excess e-float with cash and vice versa.

Soko Directory is a Financial and Markets digital portal that tracks brands, listed firms on the NSE, SMEs and trend setters in the markets eco-system. Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/SokoDirectory and on Twitter: twitter.com/SokoDirectory

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