Major step for the ecommerce development in Africa: M-Pesa wallet goes online in collaboration with PayPal

The new service enables global eCommerce on the African continent and allows M-PESA users in Kenya to shop with PayPal merchants globally, and local Kenyan online businesses and freelancers to safely and securely sell globally and easily transfer funds between their PayPal and M-PESA accounts

„PayPal and Safaricom announced a revolutionary collaboration that enables Kenyans to seamlessly move money between their M-PESA and PayPal accounts. The new service eliminates significant barriers that have hindered consumers and businesses in the country from taking full advantage of global eCommerce.”, according to the press release.

“PayPal’s collaboration with M-PESA is part of the company’s long-term strategy to enable eCommerce and democratize financial services on the African continent,” says Efi Dahan, General Manager for the Middle East, Africa and Russia, PayPal. “We are excited to bring the M-PESA mobile wallet and PayPal joint services to the Kenyan market, which makes it more convenient and secure for users to withdraw and add money to their accounts while participating in the global digital economy.”

“M-PESA’s cooperation with PayPal will open up global marketplaces and the global economy to millions of Kenyan and Kenyan-based businesses and individuals,” said Joseph Ogutu, Director of Strategy, Safaricom. “This development ushers in a new era of speed and convenience beyond borders, as we work towards innovating robust platforms through which more entrepreneurs and consumers can benefit from international money transfers and the growing eCommerce industry.”

M-PESA has revolutionized the mobile payments space by offering Kenyans the flexibility to make payments quickly and easily from any mobile phone. The new service makes it possible for Kenyan consumers with an M-PESA account to shop with online businesses across the world. With the new service, Kenyan businesses and freelancers can now sell to global customers more easily, enjoying PayPal’s secure and trusted technology to collect their payment and the newly launched service to move their money to their M-PESA wallet.
TransferTo operates a global Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network for emerging markets and is the technology partner underpinning this strategic collaboration.