Safaricom Opens M-Pesa Platform to Direct Third-Party Access

Aug. 23, 2017, 9:18 PM UTC

Safaricom Ltd., Kenya’s biggest telecommunications company, has upgraded its mobile-phone money transfer platform, allowing more third-party applications to plug into the payment system.

Until now, the unit of Johannesburg-listed Vodacom Group Ltd. had partnered with only a handful of applications running on its M-Pesa platform, including M-Shwari and KCB M-Pesa, mobile-banking products by Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd. and KCB Group Ltd. respectively. It also supports M-Kopa, a hire-purchase company for products such as solar lamps and television sets.

“We do realize that the e-commerce potential exists far beyond the platform, and hence some merchants may need to implement such ...

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