- Safaricom is in talks with Amazon to integrate M-pesa as a payment option.
- With this partnership shoppers in Kenya will be able to pay for goods on Amazon using M-Pesa.
- In 2019, Safaricom also entered into a similar partnership with AliExpress
Kenya’s leading telco Safaricom is reportedly in talks with U.S e-commerce giant Amazon to integrate M-pesa as a payment option.
The move, according to a report by Bloomberg, is part of the telco’s efforts to expand its global reach and bounce back from a first profit decline in a decade.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa Peter also made this announcement during the official release of the company’s 2021 FY results last week.
With this partnership shoppers in Kenya will be able to pay for goods on Amazon using M-Pesa. The move is also expected to help Safaricom increase its M-pesa revenues which declined by 2.1 percent to Ksh.82. 64 billion in the financial year ending March 2021.
M-PESA accounted for 33.0% of the total Safaricom’s service revenue down from 33.6% last year, impacted by the waiver of the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) transactions fees
This is not the first time Safaricom will be entering into a partnership with Amazon. In February last year, it announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services, which saw the telco become a reseller of AWS services in Kenya and throughout East Africa.
Safaricom said the deal is designed to help accelerate the telco’s “internal IT transformation, lower costs and provide it with a blueprint and skilled resources to assist customers with their journey to the cloud.
“We chose to partner with AWS because it offers customers the broadest and deepest cloud platform, overall commitment to security excellence, and a strong culture of customer obsession,” said Michael Joseph, Chairman & Non-Executive Director at Safaricom.
In 2019, Safaricom also entered into a similar partnership with AliExpress, a move the two partners said targeted micro-traders in the country who source for goods and other supplies from manufacturers in China. AliExpress customers selecting M-PESA as a payment channel have their total cost displayed in Kenya Shillings with standard Lipa Na M-PESA Paybill charges applicable for each transaction.
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