How Kenyan Startup is changing payments and remittance game in East Africa.

For the past 10 years, Africa has witnessed a great demand for online payments. The growth in mobile and internet penetration has created a platform for providers to innovate and provide a lasting solution in payments. One such a startup is Eastpesa.

Eastpesa is an online service that enables East Africans living abroad to instantly send money home. The remittance is direct to mobile and can be withdrawn at local mobile agents, all this in under 20 seconds. This eliminates need to travel miles to send or collect cash.

Senders will need to visit www.eastpesa.com, create an account, add payment details and recipient number. They then receive a prompt indicating the transfer charge, exchange rate and the final amount the recipient at home will receive. Once confirmed by the sender, the transfer happens in seconds and can be readily withdrawn at nearest mobile money agent.

We met the Seroney Memba, one of the cofounders who shared with us their vision and more on online payments. “Our service is a combination of convenience and efficiency. Being Kenyan, we understand that most times when money needed home, it is an emergency. We deliver it fast and affordably. And that is our joy,” he says.

The service is web based with the mobile app set to be launched in 26th May 2017. This will come with an e-wallet that will enable users to make payments or send money anytime from anywhere. Some of the payment features in the new app will be utility payments and airtime purchase. Best of all, the service will be available in whole of East Africa and will also support Intra-Africa transfers.

“Intra-Africa payments is an area that is currently underserved. Eastpesa makes it easy and affordable for East Africans to connect and transact. Our strength is how we have managed to bond with our users. We have created a trusted, seamless engagement medium that enables us to offer the best of service,” he adds.

Currently Visa Card, Mastercard and Paypal are supported on the platform as more providers are expected to be incorporated. With MTN, Safaricom, Airtel and Tigo as the key mobile money partners in the region.

These kind of innovations is a testament that we have we truly not seen all in relation to growth in the African remittance and online payments industry, By Africans.