By Ebi Kesiena
Mastercard has teamed up with Safaricom, a East African telecom firm, to boost cross-border payments and digital transactions in Kenya.
The partnership was announced in a press release on Thursday, outlining the collaboration’s goal to enhance payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services in Kenya. Over 636,000 merchants using Safaricom’s M-PESA mobile money platform stand to benefit.
“Kenya’s payment acceptance market continues to expand, with M-PESA-powered mobile wallet transactions showing a 12.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2020 to 2024,” the companies noted.
By combining M-PESA’s vast merchant network with Mastercard’s global payment infrastructure, the partnership aims to offer merchants more seamless, secure, and scalable payment solutions, enabling them to reach global customers.
The release further emphasized the collaboration’s goal of improving remittance services to simplify cross-border transactions.
The integration of Mastercard’s omnichannel acceptance solutions with M-PESA’s B2B transactions will also drive the growth of digital payments in Kenya, allowing merchants to accept payments more efficiently.
According to Safaricom’s Chief Financial Services Officer, Esther Waititu, the partnership with Mastercard opens new doors for M-PESA merchants, supporting its mission to deliver innovative, customer-focused solutions.
She added that the combined expertise of both companies would enable businesses to offer more efficient, frictionless payment options for their customers, both locally and internationally.
This partnership follows Mastercard’s recent collaboration with Saudi fintech startup barq, which leverages Mastercard’s Gateway technology to expand payment acceptance solutions for merchants and consumers.
