Thanks to an arrangement between Safaricom’s Mpesa product and PesaPoint, users Bank account holders will be able to interact with their bank accounts at PesaPoint ATMs. PesaPoint is close to launch the system that will enable this service to come to fruition, giving access to bank accounts of upto 32 of the total 42 Banks in Kenya via the Mpesa.
Previously this was only possible directly at the customer bank systems, and will enable users have more freedom of service choice and not be limited to physical agents where there are no bank ATMs. As long as your bank is a partner bank you should look up to better days of services brought closer to you. According to a source familiar with the project, the system will leverage on the high security payment switch managed by Paynet Kenya, to enable MPESA customers access cash from their bank account safely on a 24 hours ATM service basis and paying only fee for a normal ATM withdrawal.
The system is expected to launch later this month. PesaPoint continues to record increased mobile money transactions via the M-PESA ATM Withdrawal facility mostly because the its ATMs are operational round the clock and also do not have a float limit as is the case with typical M-PESA agents.The service- targeted at MPESA users who also have formal bank accounts- will further increase M-PESA appeal through increased convenience as users are handed a choice of not travelling and queuing in banking halls as they can simply withdraw from their banks on directly to their MPESA account thanks to the PesaPoint network.
When launched, the system will further grow the importance of PesaPoint ATMs to the M-PESA ecosystem as an important convergence point for the mobile money service, the users and the banks.
It will further escalate competition in the Mobile Money market. Only last week, Airtel Money raised the bar in the marker when in partnership with Faulu Kenya launched a service that will enable its users’ access soft loans up to Ksh 10,000 (USD 120), increasing its value proposition for users and further blurring the boundary between mobile money transfer service and banking.
Other players in the Kenya market include Yu Money and Orange Money and the network neutral mobile money providers Tangaza and MobiKash.
Paynet Group which owns PesaPoint Limited has had a special working relationship with Vodafone UK (shareholders in Safaricom) which has seen MPESA, in the past, become the first mobile money service to benefit from the groundbreaking ATM withdrawal service developed by PesaPoint. Since then, the ATM Withdrawal service has been extended to Airtel Money with MobiKash also applying for it. It is not clear if this service called PesaPoint M-PESA CASH-IN will also be extended to other mobile money service operators.
IMG Credit: Kiplagat’s Photostream
