M-Pesa is poised to roll out a standing orders feature to its users. Traditionally, Safaricom’s M-Pesa has led other mobile money in innovation and expansion. This is not different this time as M-Pesa will become the first mobile money platform to give its users the this option.
Making the announcement George Njuguna, the Director of Information Technology (CIO) at Safaricom PLC said: “ This is the first initiative, where you will have standing orders on a mobile platform – the first in the world, and not just the first in Africa. We will use it in other areas such as health because we understand this economy to increase accessibility and affordability.”
Standing orders are regular payments of the same amount paid on a specified date. Usually in banking, standing orders allow your bank to take money regularly from your account to pay another account. Generally, standing orders are best for making recurring payments like rent, subscription fees, paying suppliers, and much more.
However, Safaricom has not yet indicated when the new feature will be made available. Additionally, users do not know how exactly the feature will work. Safaricom is yet to provide details on the setup of accounts, authorization, and even the security of the feature.
M-Pesa Standing Orders Use Cases
The news this morning further establishes M-Pesa as a dominant fintech solution.
As a feature to make recurring payments, Kenyans may use it to pay their online subscriptions. One good example is the payment for streaming services like Showmax. In another instance, a good number of Kenyans pay their monthly rent via M-Pesa and this feature could make the process seamless.
M-Pesa is also a platform with credit facilities, recent reports reveal most Kenyans rely on credit facilities that are associated with M-Pesa. With the standing orders feature, Kenya will be able to repay their outstanding loans to M-Shwari, Hustler Fund, KCB M-Pesa, and other mobile loan platforms.
Furthermore, businesses can easily pay suppliers while parents can efficiently send pocket money to their children.
This announcement makes M-Pesa more and more a neo-bank. For now, Safaricom customers will await further details from the telco.
