Subscribers to have seamless payments ecosystem
Mobile phone subscribers can now make payments for utilities, school fees and other service providers, without regard to the network they are on. This follows the full interoperability of money services in Kenya as announced by the Central Bank of Kenya(CBK).
This platform complements the till interoperability that was launched on 8th April in 2018, which allows customers to make payments at supermarkets, restaurants and other vendors regardless of the network. In turn, this builds on the person-to-person(P2P) interoperability that was implemented in 2018.
Without full Interoperability, customers were limited to the network they were on in order to make payments and had to resort to alternative methods that were neither customer-friendly of affordable. Now it will not matter what network a customer, vendor or other biller in on in order to complete a payment directly. This means the elimination of inconveniences and wasteful duplication.
Available figures indicate that there are more than 560,000 vendors and billers and almost 28 million customers, all who will be the ultimate beneficiaries of the seamless payments ecosystem
According to CBK, full interoperability will facilitate the deepening of the digitization of payments, increasing choice, affordability and customer-centricity of payment services, a key outcome outlined in the National Payments Strategy 2022-2025.
“This will bring us closer to attaining the vision of a secure, fast, efficient and collaborative payments system that supports financial inclusion and innovations that benefit Kenyan,” said CBK in a statement.
