KENYA:MobiKash makes a comeback

JUNE 02,2014.

CAPITAL FM. 

MobiKash Afrika Limited has launched a new merchant payment service that will benefit customers from all mobile phone networks.

Dubbed ‘Lipa Sasa Na MobiKash’ the service allows customers to pay bills for goods and services at various merchants using their mobile phones.

MobiKash Afrika CEO Duncan Otieno said they now plan to increase their presence in the market with the launch the seamless and real-time payment service.

“Mobile money service first introduced in the country in 2007, has completely revolutionised the business arena and unveiled a whole new world of possibilities,” he said during the launch on Friday.

The move comes after a strategic partnership with Kenyan investments conglomerate, Foundation Enterprise Programme (FEP) last year, which saw the latter acquire a controlling stake in MobiKash Afrika.

FEP has a group of 14 companies ranging from financial services, healthcare, tourism, real estate, media, trade and industry.

MobiKash entered the country’s mobile financial transaction space in 2011 but has remained less active as far as the mobile payment sector is concerned.

“As my colleagues would tell you, all this time we have been doing a lot. For example laying the needed infrastructure and other strategic moves. I mean there is a lot that has been going on. We are not in competition but we are here to overtake,” MobiKash Afrika chairperson Muthoni Kuria said.

Apart from paying bills, other services by MobiKash include sending and receiving money via mobile phones, and depositing and withdrawing cash from any bank account.

“With MobiKash you can send money to and from any other mobile phone subscriber in Kenya, any of your linked bank accounts and to any other bank accounts among participating banks in real time,” Otieno said.

It will cost a customer a maximum of Sh50 to send money via the platform for amount of up to Sh100,000. “However cost of withdrawing will have various ranges.”

The company has so far set up 4,000 agents across the country.