Already established as Africa’s most vibrant mobile money market, Kenya has taken a step further in the bid to enhance mobile transactions among it’s people.
Yesterday being the 2nd day of June, 2022, Safaricom, East Africa’s leading telecom and facilitator of M-Pesa in collaboration with Visa launched a Virtual Card called M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual Card.
What is a Virtual Card?
A virtual card is an intangible credit and/or debit card similar to the usual hardware cards, but with randomly generated CVV codes which can be used to make online/mobile transactions in a more efficient and secure way.
M-Pesa Before and After Upgrade:
For years, M-Pesa has led its counterparts in processing mobile money transactions, for years, it has been the people’s favourite choice; but because it is a home-based initiative, it’s services are limited to functioning only within the borders of Kenya. However, this new upgrade has come to shatter all barriers.
And although there have been other platforms which offer the service of Virtual Cards to Kenyan consumers (like MTN’s MoMocard), it is a plus for Safaricom to upgrade to the virtual platform.
Why a Plus?
Because when the leading athlete in a race crosses the line, they not only rip the ribbon, they set a new record as champions of the game and take home the trophy and praises from fans – both new and old. The same is the case for M-Pesa.
Vice President, Visa, East African branch, Corine Mbiaketcha, earlier stated that “Safaricom has changed how money moves in Kenya. We are pleased to be working together to build new and innovative payments products and services that will help merchants and customers in Sub-Saharan Africa overcome hurdles to global trade”.
Benefits of the M-Pesa GlobalPay Visa Virtual Card Upgrade:
- With Geo-restriction bridged, the upgrade provides ease and efficiency to consumers.
- The virtual card provides safe and reliable transactions to consumers who are petrified of using their credit cards for fear of being defrauded.
- A handful of mobile and/or international transactions accept only Visa cards and Mastercards – both of which M-Pesa was not aligned with – and study have shown that a vast majority of Kenyans use M-Pesa. Hence, before now, all international transactions were unattainable yet now, the world is more of a global village.
What Happens Next?
Mbiaketcha also assured that, “Visa is committed to expanding the payments ecosystem across Africa by opening up the global marketplace for every single consumer. This partnership with Safaricom is an important step in helping to achieve this”.
With this collaboration, the future only looks brighter for both companies and their consumers as their climb toward the future begins. As hinted by the Vice President of Visa in East Africa, we shall be expecting a wider expansion of more Virtual upgrades such as this, all around Africa in the not so distant future.
