M-Pesa Payments for Kenyans Now Available Through SimbaPay

SimbaPay, a provider of digital money transfer services, recently announced that it has gone international in its scope.

In a pairing with the M-Pesa payment service that operates in Kenya, SimbaPay will now allow Kenyans living abroad to utilize SimbaPay to make payments to vendors that have M-Pesa PayBill accounts. Previously, payments were only possible from one PayBill account to another, but now Kenyans will have the opportunity to reach all types of vendors in their country regardless of where they currently live. Nyasinga Onyancha, the CEO of SimbaPay, spoke about this joining of services and mentioned a few examples of vendors which may prove popular as a result of this pairing.

“Our customers want to pay vendors in Kenya faster and without having to go through friends and family,” Onyancha began. “This new product allows them to do just that, especially for time sensitive payments such as those to hospitals, stock brokers and the like.”

There are two main benefits to this new transaction service beyond the simple reach it offers between individuals and businesses. First, members of SimbaPay will not need a login associated with M-Pesa in order to transfer accounts to those funds. Onyancha's reference to family and friends brings this issue to light; now users will only need SimbaPay accounts and the vendor information to which they want to send money.

Second, SimbaPay will offer payments to M-Pesa accounts with no additional fees. This should have the effect of making the service attractive to anyone who may have previously stuck with M-Pesa transfers because of the monetary benefit of doing so. Users can make payments from any computer that has access to the SimbaPay app. This includes desktops and mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

At this time, the service is only available to Kenyans who live in the U.K., but there are plans for expansion into other European countries.