M-PESA

Western Union announced that now consumers can make direct transfers to the the mobile “wallets” of Safaricom M-PESA subscribers in Kenya from 45 countries and territories.

“We are pleased to extend our service with Safaricom, and we look forward to adding additional functionality for M-PESA users in the near future,” said David Yates, Executive Vice President and President, Business Development and Innovation, Western Union.

It became known that Barclays Bank has partnered M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service of Safaricom company. Owing to this new partnership the Barclays Bank account holders can now deposit and withdraw funds to and from their account using their mobile phones. According to Adan Mohamed, the Barclays managing director for East and West Africa this step was taken to popularize bank services and to make access to the service easier. 

Barclays Bank has become the 8th bank that is partnering with African telco Safaricom to offer its Kenyan account holders M-Pesa mobile money services.

Now bank account holders can deposit and withdraw money using their mobile phones while M-Pesa agents who bank with Barclays can also use the system to buy their electronic float for their daily operations.

Equity Bank and Safaricom have launched a new service to let consumers transfer money from and to their M-PESA accounts via their mobile phones. The newly introduced bank account dubbed M-KESHO allows customers to make remittances with their handsets while enjoying other benefits of bank accounts.

A mobile operator Vodafone is implementing M-Pesa payment system in South Africa after its successful deployment in Kenya.

Since its launch in 2007 by Vodafone affiliate Safaricom M-Pesa has been implemented in Tanzania and Afghanistan. According to the latest figures over 10% of Kenya's GDP now pass through the mobile banking service.

 Wireless operator Safaricom has extended its hugely successful M-Pesa mobile money transfer service, enabling people in the UK to send funds to friends and family in Kenya.

The M-Pesa International Money Transfer (IMT) service lets people in the UK send money directly to the mobile phones of people who have an account with the firm in Kenya.

Western Union, Safaricom and Vodafone - which has a minority stake in the Kenyan telco - began working on the international remittance service last year. 

Safaricom, a mobile phone service provider, partnered with Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) for Agent to Agent transactions that will help improve availability of M-PESA in the market. Now authorized M-PESA agents can instantly access M-PESA when they make cash deposits at the bank. To obtain M-PESA, agents deposit cash into the M-PESA Holding Company bank account at Commercial Bank of Africa.