Lipa Na M-Pesa To Be Forced To Receive Cash From Rivals

Safaricom’s Lipa Na M-Pesa will soon be forced to accept payments from rivals such as Airtel if the Central Bank of Kenya goes ahead to implement the new payment system that will see “seamless transactions and payments across platforms.”

Lipa Na M-Pesa is the most popular model when Kenyans pay for products and services. The platform has over 250,000 merchants on board and the numbers have been rising each year. The move will see Airtel enjoy the infrastructure already put in place by Safaricom.

Read More: 200,000 Businesses In Kenya Now Have Lipa Na M-Pesa

“The mobile phone has today become the most preferred alternative to cash and its popularity only continues to grow. An increasing number of businesses are discovering the numerous advantages of cashless payments resulting in high growth for Lipa Na M-PESA,” said Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa.

For more than 10 years, Kenya has been leading more than 20 countries in the world in terms of financial inclusion with Safaricom’s M-Pesa being one of the greatest enablers. This has always left Safaricom’s competitors helpless because their capacity is less compared to Safaricom.

The value of mobile money transactions through agents as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) has increased from 23 percent in 2010 to 60 percent in 2021, according to the banking regulator. There were over 2.2 billion transactions worth over Sh6.9 trillion in 2021.

The interoperability — the ability of different IT systems to communicate and exchange data — will offer Airtel a larger share of the mobile money payments made through merchants and deepen financial inclusion.

Read More: Your Contacts Will Not Be Displayed During Lipa Na M-Pesa