Safaricom’s Mpesa in partnership with Visa on Thursday launched a virtual visa card for international payments.
The move will open global shopping for Kenyan consumers allowing them to secure cashless payments across the globe.
“We are looking to bridge the gap for our customers who would like to use M-PESA anywhere across the world,” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO, of Safaricom.
Visa Vice President and General Manager for East Africa Corine Mbiaketcha lauded the move saying, it will eliminate barriers to global commerce for merchants and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Safaricom, especially given the current environment where we are seeing a hastened shift away from cash and toward digital payments,” said Mbiaketcha.
Customers can now activate the card via the M-PESA App by selecting M-PESA GlobalPay, under the “Pay” or “Grow” option or they can as well activate it by dialing *334# and then selecting option 6 for “Lipa Na M-PESA” followed by “M-PESA GlobalPay”.
However, both options will require the customer to use their secret M-PESA PIN. The customer can then view their card details and generate the “CVV” required to confirm online card transactions, manage their cards, set up repeat payments, and access their Mini-Statement.
When a customer performs a transaction, he/she will receive an SMS prevailing exchange rate for the transaction value.
Transaction limits will remain the same in a day KES 150,000 per transaction and KES 300,000 per day at the prevailing Forex rates.