M-Pesa services will now be available across the world, proving the platform’s formidable stand as one of Africa’s largest mobile money networks.
This is after it entered into a partnership with Visa for M-Pesa Visa Virtual Card to offer seamless transactions globally. The service will be available via M-Pesa App or a USSD code, *334#.
M-Pesa Visa virtual card will allow secure cashless payments at merchant locations in over 200 countries through Visa’s global network.
The card will be exclusive for international, online payments outside the country to protect customers from incurring forex conversion costs on local online payments billed in Kenya Shillings.
“M-PESA has over the past fifteen years evolved from a simple money transfer service to become a robust payment platform and driver of financial inclusion for Kenyans. This has paved the way for numerous innovative services and by partnering with Visa to provide the M-PESA GlobalPay Visa virtual card, we are looking to bridge the gap for our customers who would like to use M-PESA anywhere across the world,” said Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer Peter Ndegwa.
Even though the transaction through the virtual card is only tied to 200 countries, one can only pay to international online merchants such as Netflix, Amazon, AliExpress.
Safaricom, the parent company of M-Pesa clarified that Fuliza option will not be available on GlobalPay payments.
Both firms will soon launch the M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual Card Tanzania, Congo DR, Mozambique, Lesotho and Ghana.
According to Corine Mbiaketcha, Vice President and General Manager for East Africa at Visa, the deal will boost Visa’s efforts to penetrate more African markets riding on the M-Pesa platform.
M-Pesa hit a Ksh.100 billion record mark in revenue in 2021, to stand out as the telco’s top revenue contributor 15 years after its establishment, with the recent Visa deal expected to boost its revenue performance even further.
According to Safaricom’s 2021 full-year financial report, M-Pesa revenue surged by 38.3 percent to Ksh.107.7 billion from Ksh.86.2 billion in 2021.
Total M-Pesa transactions value grew 34.0 percent year-on-year to Ksh.29.55 trillion and the volume of transactions grew 34.9 percent to 15.75 billion.
Kenya remains M-pesa’s most active market accounting for more than 30 million of the 51 million customers across Kenya, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt.
