Telkom and Airtel customers can finally make payments via Mpesa's pay bill money service as Safaricom completes last stage of across board mobile information exchange.
In April, Telkom and Airtel were locked out of access to the payment service even as M-Pesa opened its till services to customers from the pair of rivals.
Safaricom's head of corporate communications Wachira Kangaru told the Star only successful implementation of till service across board would advise on when to initiate pay bill interoperability.
The telco had previously projected at least one year observing period.
"We believe pay bill interoperability should be the next in line, once the industry picks key learnings from how the current innovation progresses," Kangaru said back in April.
He said this is a further innovation after a successful rollout of mobile money interoperability making it possible for customers to send and receive money from any network in the country.
The activation of merchant reciprocity allowed Kenyans to make mobile money payments to M-Pesa tills from whichever network.
Since the rollout of till number interoperability, Telkom Kenya has been pushing for access to M-Pesa paybills to ensure greater interplay in the mobile payments space between customers and merchants.
Telkom CEO Serame Taukobong said the company saw an increased uptake of its mobile-money platform on the back of customers getting access to Mpesa till.
“There has been increased uptake since the launch of the service, nonetheless as is typical of payment behaviour, marked usage does take some time giving us room for more customer education in the interim," Taukobong said in a statement.
Safaricom’s M-Pesa has been the dominant player in mobile payments with a market share of more than 98 per cent according to industry statistics.
Mobile Interoperability is an innovation by Central Bank of Kenya in 2018 in a bid to foster and secure fast, efficient and collaborative payments systems in Kenya, bridging dominance.
It is also meant to replicate the linkage between Airtel Money and M-Pesa by bringing services that are connected to the payments space.
CBK data shows that while cash remains an important means of payment, Kenyans make over 37.6 million transactions of about Sh176 billion every day through various non-cash channels—mobile money, cards, electronic bank transfers, and cheques.
During the merchants interoperability launch last week, Telkom Kenya chief executive, Mugo Kibati while welcoming the innovation, said enhancing the seamless mobile transaction will broaden the consumers' choice.
“The introduction of merchant interoperability brings us closer to realising a cashless economy, further enhancing a seamless digital transactions ecosystem that gives the consumer more choice,” Kibati said.
Airtel managing director, Prasanta Das Sarma lauded the CBK for its role in championing collaborations in payment.
"They have made Kenya a trailblazer in digital payments in the world," Sarma said.
