Pamoja Media East Africa - Nairobi

As technology improves by the day, Kenya as a country is growing to embrace these advancements. Transactions have been made easy with the introduction of various online payment systems. Below are some of these systems and how they work.

Mobile Payments
Mobile payments are easy to use, one only needs to create an account using their phones and once their accounts are active, they are able to transact. In Kenya, safaricom through Mpesa is the most widely used mobile payment platform. A merchant needs to register his businesses for Lipa Na Mpesa services by signing up at any safaricom retail shop or an authorized safaricom agent. To register, one needs a copy of their KRA PIN Certificate, Identification Card and a trading license. For a customer who wants to use the Lipa Na Mpesa  

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service, they are required to go to their Mpesa menu, select Lipa Na Mpesa then go to buy goods and services. From here enter the till number present at a business premises then follow the subsequent prompts until the transaction Is complete. If the transaction is successful, both the customer and the vendor will receive a confirmatory notification.

Credit cards
In Kenya credit cards are not that popularly used as compared to most western countries. More needs to be done to support the use of credit cards. For instance, most payment gateways do not support 3D-Secure verification. This means security checks have to be manually done on credit card payment which is very tedious. Therefore, merchants wishing to accept credit card payments online should ensure that the payment processor they choose supports 3D-Secure Verification.



Pesapal
Pesapal is one of Kenya’s leading online payment system. This is how it works:
• First and foremost, the retailer must register with pesapal. His website must be integrated with pesapal and an invoice should be issued from his account.
• A buyer then makes payments using mobile money, credit cards, wallets or use their handset using unique pesapal reference.
• Once payment is done, money is held in a trust account at the bank and will only be transferred to the retailer’s account at his request. Notification is then sent to the Merchant and buyer with a summary of the transaction and payment status.
• The vendor can then withdraw money by logging on to their pesapal account then from there they can communicate to their banks to transfer their money to their account and from there they can withdraw.

Jambo pay
It uses the same principle as pesapal. A customer must create an account with Jambo pay for free and the merchants should own one as well. Vendors are charged a certain commission per transaction.
Ipay
This is another platform that support e commerce. Buyers are able to make payments and retailers receive their money through debit cards, credit cards and mobile money transfers. Registration to Ipay is free but retailers are charged a small amount of commission per transaction.

As a merchant it is advisable to ensure your business is registered with one of the online payment platforms, this is because as technology advancements continue to get wide spread, more customers will prefer pay for goods and services online. In addition to that, online transaction is convenient and secure.