Eastpesa co-founder Seroney Memba. He expects the startup to transform international remittance and intra Africa transfers in a big way. [Photo/ Courtesy of SM]
The East African online payment industry has set a growing trend over the last few years. And now, the region is set welcome a new entry in Eastpesa, a Kenyan payment startup. The platform will offer local payments and remittance services.This service enables East Africans abroad to instantly transfer money direct to local mobile money wallets. The whole process takes a minute to complete and recipients can then collect the money from the local mobile money agents.Seroney Memba, a co-founder, said Eastpesa will transform international remittance and intra Africa transfers in a big way. “We are making it possible for people to receive money and pay for bills conveniently and instantly through mobile. All this with a touch of a fresh African style,” the entrepreneur said. Payments for local bills will also be available in the platform. Users will be able to pay for electricity, water, TV, buy airtime and many other services.Formed in Jan 2016, as a PayPal to Mpesa and Airtel money transfer service, Eastpesa seeks to grow to the ultimate payments platform in Africa. “Going East African is a major step. We appreciate the kind of partnerships we are building and the positive market response,” says Seroney.Other popular means of sending money to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are Wave and World remit.