Giant mobile telecommunication service providers Safaricom and Airtel have announced a merger that will see their customers withdraw money across networks starting from April 10.
This is after a pilot interoperability project carried out over a two-month period turned successful.
The move is expected to ensure efficiency, for instance, with M-Pesa customers money transfer transactions reflecting in real time in the recipient’s Airtel Money account.
[caption caption="M-Pesa agent shop"]
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This will mark a major departure from the current situation where a text message alerts the recipient of such money to collect it from an agent registered with the sender’s network.
The current system hence has been inconveniencing as one has to look for the sender's network agent before making withdrawals which is at times difficult and tedious.
Telkom, which operates under the T-Kash money transfer brand is expected to join money transfer interoperability initiative by Safaricom and Airtel at a later date.
Reports by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) for the first quarter of 2107/2018 indicate that there are 28.1 million active mobile money transfer subscriptions and 184,537 registered agents.
During the period under review, M-Pesa services posted a market share of 80.8 percent while Airtel Money boasted a market share of 5.8 percent after Equitel Money which posted 6..8 percent.
The cross-network money transfer is projected to increase the number of transactions especially for the networks with a smaller market share.
[caption caption="Money transfer agents' shops"]
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Safaricom hosts 67 percent of all the mobile money agents with an estimated 40,000 merchants accepting M-Pesa payments either in paying bills or purchasing goods and services.
