PesaPal, an online payment solution that has been in business since 2010 has launched a new product called PesaPal Sabi. Sabi will leverage the offerings of mobile Point of Sale systems (mPOS) to provide a platform for individuals, as well as businesses to process secure card payments in stores or on the go using Android-powered handhelds.
The firm states that it will avail PesaPal Sabi in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to help the said business demographic that rely on mobile for trade to stretch their mandate to larger and regional retailers and process card payments more effectively.
For the moment – and this may change in the future (because support for card mVisa, M-PESA and American Express is incoming), Sabi processes Visa and MasterCard debit, not to mention credit cards in local currencies and U.S. dollars.
Process
Payments will use Bluetooth technology via Sabi mPOS terminals that will be offered by PesaPal. Also, they can process both chip and pin payments, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless payments, which, fortunately, is not a proprietary system like Safaricom’s One Tap that utilizes tags offered by the company, and not a device’s inbuilt NFC chip. The terminals are portable, and can process up to 250 transactions on a single charge.
The Sabi android app will have additional features, such as transaction histories for business owners and issuance of receipts.
The use of the aforementioned technologies will help small business owners respond to customer demands that call for a variety of payment methods.
“We exist to bolster financial and digital inclusion in the markets we are in. We offer businesses freedom to access services that they have traditionally had more difficulty getting, either due to their size or volumes. With Sabi we are doing this in the most accessible, affordable and mobile way available anywhere. Sabi is also our way of taking financial services to the informal sector, a segment that has previously been underserved,” says Agosto Liko, Pesapal CEO during the announcement of Sabi.
The Sabi terminal is already up at PesaPal’s website where merchants can purchase a Sabi terminal, which, upon delivery, will be up and running within 24 hours. Security-wise, PesaPal is both PCI PIN and PCI DSS certified, meaning international security standards are applied to all card transactions ensuring security for both businesses and their customers.
