This archive report was first published on 14 August 2019.
On August 14, 2019, Safaricom announced its plans to capture the growing market of cross-border trade to boost M-Pesa revenues.
Through partnerships with international platforms such as PayPal, WeChat, AliExpress, and Western Union, M-Pesa aims to reach more customers and connect domestic traders to international markets.
These partnerships provide convenience to M-Pesa customers, reducing transaction costs and enabling them to transfer cash to millions of users worldwide.
For instance, WeChat allows M-Pesa users to transfer cash to over a billion active users of China's digital payment system WeChat Pay, while PayPal enables access to over 220 million users globally.
Additionally, M-Pesa mobile wallet accounts have been connected to 500,000 global agents representing financial services provider Western Union.
As a result, Safaricom's share in diaspora remittances grew to 34% in FY19 from 15% two years ago.
The deepened relationship between Safaricom and Vodacom is also expected to benefit M-Pesa, with potential sharing of costs and returns associated with the launch of operations in Ethiopia.
