Safaricom and Visa have introduced the first M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual card.
The launch of the new M-Pesa Visa virtual card opens global shopping for Kenyan consumers, allowing secure cashless payments at more than 100 million merchants in over 200 countries through Visa’s global network.
The M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual Card will be exclusive for international, online payments outside the country to protect customers from incurring forex conversion costs on local online payments billed in Kenya Shillings.
Once a customer performs a transaction with the card, they will receive an SMS with the prevailing exchange rate for the transaction value.
Transactions will be subject to current M-Pesa limits of Sh150,000 per transaction and Sh300,000 per day at the prevailing forex rates.
“By partnering with Visa to provide the M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa virtual card, we are looking to bridge the gap for our customers who would like to use M-Pesa anywhere across the world,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, Safaricom.
The virtual card is a timely service tailored to meet the increasing needs of Kenyans using global apps and shopping websites for entertainment, retail, business, and even when traveling abroad.
In addition to providing customers with the freedom and convenience of transacting across the world, the virtual card builds on M-Pesa's security, by empowering customers to generate a unique CVV for a 30-minute period.
Customers will key in their M-Pesa PIN each time they generate a CVV.
This feature ensures all the details of the card required to perform a transaction are only known to the customer.
“Visa is committed to expanding the payments ecosystem across Africa by opening up the global marketplace for every single consumer. This partnership with Safaricom is an important step in helping to achieve this," said Corine Mbiaketcha, vice president and general manager for East Africa at Visa.
The product eliminates barriers to global commerce for merchants and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, through Visa’s global footprint, Mbiaketcha added.
By leveraging the Visa vast global network and experience as well as Safaricom’s local know-how and large subscriber base, they are charting a new path for digital payments.
“We remain optimistic that this partnership will go a long way in opening the global e-commerce market to Kenya’s significant unbanked and underbanked population,” said Mbiaketcha,
The virtual card will gradually be available across other M-Pesa markets through the M-Pesa Super App under a strategic partnership between M-Pesa Africa and Visa.
These include Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Lesotho and Ghana.
