PayPal and Safaricom have announced a collaboration that will allow Kenyans to move money between their M-PESA and PayPal accounts. The new service aims to eliminate barriers that had slowed the growth of global eCommerce in the country.
“PayPal’s collaboration with M-PESA is part of the company’s long-term strategy to enable eCommerce and democratise financial services on the African continent. The new service eliminates significant barriers that have hindered consumers and businesses in the country from taking full advantage of global eCommerce. The technology partner underpinning this strategic collaboration is TransferTo, a global Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network for emerging markets.
The new collaboration now makes it possible for Kenyan consumers with an M-PESA account to shop with online businesses across the world. Kenyan businesses and freelancers can now sell to global customers more easily, enjoying PayPal’s technology to collect their payment and the newly launched service to move their money to their M-PESA wallet.
The move will open global marketplaces to Kenyan entrepreneurs and businesses, effectively allowing M-Pesa’s 22.7 million subscribers to transact online, on mobile, in an app, or in person with PayPal’s 227 million users.
What is M-PESA ?
Safaricom pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-PESA, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world. Launched in March 2007, M-PESA now has over 27.8 million customers and over 148,000 M-PESA Agent outlets countrywide. M-PESA has changed the mobile payments space by offerıng Kenyans the opportunity to make payments from any mobile phone.
The service is now live and available to all Kenyans with qualifying PayPal and M-PESA accounts.
Sources: IT News Africa & Quartz
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