Safaricom, Pesapal bring M-Pesa tap-to-pay to shop tills
Safaricom has partnered with payments firm Pesapal to roll out tap-to-pay and dynamic QR code payments for M-Pesa at shop tills, as the telco targets a more than eightfold rise in merchants accepting its scan-to-pay service within a year.
The companies said on Thursday that customers will be able to pay merchants by tapping NFC-enabled smartphones on Pesapal point-of-sale (POS) devices, or by scanning a QR code displayed on the terminal.
Scan-to-Pay is currently available at more than 60,000 merchant outlets. Safaricom aims to scale it to 500,000 outlets within the next 12 months.
The move brings M-Pesa deeper into the physical checkout, where card terminals have traditionally dominated tap payments.
“As the way Kenyans shop and transact continues to evolve, we are focused on ensuring that M-Pesa evolves with them,” said James Maitai, Safaricom’s Group Chief Technology Officer.
“This means moving beyond simply enabling payments to reimagining the payment experience itself,” he added.
Safaricom’s existing Scan-to-Pay lets customers scan a static QR code linked to a merchant’s Till Number. The Dynamic Scan-to-Pay feature on Pesapal terminals automatically fills in both the merchant details and the amount, reducing errors from manual entry.
Under Tap-to-Pay, customers tap their phone on the POS, confirm the transaction details and complete payment.
Pesapal founder Agosta Liko described the features as the biggest leap in Kenya’s checkout experience in years.
“Thousands of businesses trust our platform, and by teaming up with Safaricom, we are delivering the faster, error-free transactions their customers expect,” Mr Liko said.
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