TerraPay, a leading global payments infrastructure company today announced its partnership with Safaricom, Kenya’s leading telecommunications, IT, and financial services provider. Together, both companies will usher in the benefits of financial inclusion by facilitating instant borderless payments. The partnership, through TerraPay’s group company Mobex (Kenya), a licensed money remittance provider, will enable more than 30 million M-PESA mobile wallet-holders in Kenya to send real-time payments through TerraPay’s interoperable network across all wallets in Bangladesh & Pakistan, with plans to roll out India & Nepal in a few months.
Given the rise of cross-border deals, in the six months to March 2023, M-PESA Global transactions grew YoY in volume & value by 2.2% & 5.6%, respectively.The adoption of mobile money payments in Kenya has been increasing following the Central Bank’s push for the service, in recent times. Through this partnership, both companies aim to work towards creating a financially inclusive payments ecosystem while fostering financial empowerment and independence.
Speaking on this new partnership Ambar Sur, Founder & CEO, TerraPay said “We believe this breakthrough collaboration with Safaricom will usher a world of new possibilities for mobile financial service operators to directly scale globally and provide customers with the choice to send payments in a secure, transparent, and swift manner. Our partnership with Safaricom will further boost our capabilities in providing an inclusive global financial ecosystem with excellent technical solutions, cultivating an affinity by empowering Safaricom customers with fast & affordable borderless payment options and access to TerraPay’s widespread partner network of 7.5Bn+ bank accounts and 2.1Bn+ mobile wallets.”
Commenting on the launch of the partnership, Peter Ndegwa – CEO, Safaricom stated, “We are thrilled to partner with TerraPay as it comes at a time where a growing number of customers are embracing digital payments to send money to their loved ones. TerraPay’s interoperable technology platform will enable our customers to execute secured & low-cost payments across key regions further encouraging the adoption of digital payments in the region. We look forward to a successful collaboration.”
About TerraPay
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, TerraPay believes that the smallest payment deserves a borderless journey as safe as the largest. The group has been building an ever-expanding payments highway that empowers businesses to create transparent customer experiences with an uninterrupted, secure, and real-time global passage for every payment, however small or large. Registered and regulated across 27 global markets, TerraPay is one of the leading global partners to banks, mobile wallets, money transfer operators, merchants, and financial institutions, creating a more expansive and inclusive international financial ecosystem. With access to an extensive network of 7.5Bn+ bank accounts, 2.1Bn+ mobile wallets, across 112 receive countries and 208 send countries, TerraPay enables its partners to become beacons of the promise of global financial inclusion.
Press Contact: Sneha Dwivedi | sneha.d@terrapay.com
About Safaricom
Safaricom is the leading telecommunication company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information. We keep over 42 million customers connected and play a critical role in the society, supporting over one million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 393 Billion ($ 3.1 billion) for the 12 months through March 2022.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of close to KES 298 billion ($2.5 billion) as at March 2022. Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99% of Kenya’s population.
We run the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech, M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering over 30 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to more than 84% of the adult population from a low of 25% and generated over KES 107.6 Billion ($920 million) in revenue as at FY22.
Our subsidiary, Safaricom Telecommunications Ethiopia, plans to deploy world class network and services in 2022, to contribute to Ethiopia’s digital transformation.
Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels. Our target is to achieve 50:50 senior management gender parity by 2025.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.