In Kenya, M-PESA is a household name when it comes to mobile payments and transactions in general. For a while now, there has been need to make M-PESA more compatible with global systems. Today, users of M-PESA can easily transact to and from PayPal. In a move that could be seen as the mobile money platform embracing international transactions fully, word now has it that Safaricom is planning to introduce Virtual Visa cards in a bid to enhance and enable seamless international payments. While announcing the telco’s Financial Year results, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa revealed that the carrier will be launching M-PESA GlobalPay, an M-PESA service that will be powered by Visa Virtual Cards for international online payments. Virtual Visa cards are incredibly useful in this connected age. For instance, many video streaming platforms require you to pay for your subscription using MasterCard or Visa card. This effectively eliminates the millions of Kenyans whose primary mode of transaction is M-PESA. There’s also paranoia and skepticism among Kenyans when it comes to using their bank-issued credit cards for online services as these have been prone to fraud in the past with countless horror stories from victims.
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Currently, there are a number of Fintech platforms that offer Kenyans the ability to crate and use Virtual cards and we’ve highlighted many of these, links to which have been attached above. Safaricom entering this Virtual Visa Card market with M-PESA means that we shall have a first-party solution to this need and we hope that the associated charges will be equally friendly. It is exciting to see Safaricom innovating and coming up with solutions to such niche needs. These Virtual Visa Card could make M-PESA a formidable player in the global payment space and we’re here to see how Kenyans benefit from this move. What do you think about this news on M-PESA Virtual Card? Tell us in the comments section below.
