Kenyans spent 59 billion ($590 million) sending money last year, said James Mwangi, Equity Bank CEO at a recent investor briefing , and that’s a lot of money.
A good chunk of the daily transactions payments and transfer involve people withdrawing money from their bank account to their phone which they then send (via M-pesa or other telco services), to recipients, who then re-deposit it in their bank accounts, also by phone. Some bankers feel that M-pesa does not pay it’s fair share of bank costs, as they are the ones who pay for insurance, cash in transit, cash handling fees – these are costs that consumers don’t see
So the banker’s umbrella body, the Kenya Bankers Association, has now set up Integrated Payments Service (IPSL), a fully owned subsidiary to provide technology-based payment solutions to the association’s member banks, at subsidized rates.
It is in testing with 20 banks, and once complete, the IPSL system will provide a safe, secure and cost efficient platform for person-to-person (P2P) money transfer.. (via) the five main bank channels: mobile banking (USSD & Application), internet banking, ATM, branch front office, agency Banking and POS.
not good idea to away with Mpesa,
They are not, they just want a different road to use, and reduce some charges incurred in moving money around
Nice article, also when exclusive use of credit cards at points of sell starts gaining ground, mobile money transfer would reduce because parents would have the bank wire specific amount of money into their children account either online or fixed deposits. Mobile money transfer is a platform that only time can tell its existence.
Yes mobile money/mpesa has become a uniquely Kenyan way of life. But mpesa will have to evolve gfor it to be easy to use in other ways like recurring payments, PSV payments, and diaspora remittances.