Safaricom Set To Develop M-Pesa For Kids

Safaricom is in the process of developing M-Pesa Junior, a product that will see those yet to reach 18 years of age have M-Pesa accounts and transact. Currently, only adults with national IDs are allowed to own SIM cards and have M-Pesa accounts.

“Subject to regulatory approvals, we plan to soon launch an M-PESA junior product for our children who may have access to mobile phones,” said Peter Ndegwa, the CEO of Safaricom during the release of the company’s full-year results.

“At the same time, with support from our regulators and partners, we are working together to deliver innovative products in the new year such as the Visa virtual card by M-PESA GlobalPay to support international online payments,” he added.

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Safaricom has been banking on the growth of M-Pesa over the years with the platform being one of the largest revenue earners for the company. During the year, for instance, mobile money revenue accounted for 38.3 percent of Safaricom’s service revenue.

At the same time, during the year under review, 29.5 trillion shillings were transacted in M-Pesa on Safaricom the entire year earning Safaricom 107.7 billion shillings.

Early this year, Safaricom partnered with Gulf African Bank to launch what they called Halal Pesa. “In partnership with Gulf African Bank, we launched Halal Pesa, the first Shari’ah-compliant based digital financing product powered by M-PESA.”

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