Kenya’s Posta sign pact to offer money transfer services

By Remie OTIENO

The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) will commence mobile money transfer services through its electronic payment system dubbed PostaPay.

In an agreement announced Friday, Posta in partnership with Viewtech, the company behind SasaPay – which will provide PCK with Wallet as a service (WaaS) for money transfer services including disbursements, collections and sending of money from individual to individual for collection at the Post Office.

“Under the agreement, Posta will be an agent of Viewtech Ltd, offering deposit, withdrawal, registration and verification services on PostaPay at a commission,” said Dan Kagwe, the Postmaster General of Postal Corporation of Kenya.

This comes exactly a year since the corporation received Sh71.96 million from Trademark East Africa to boost its e-commerce in areas such as market needs, logistics, cross-border payments, and regulatory constraints.

PCK seeks to improve internal digital capacities and improve collaboration with external (national, regional, and global) actors in the e-commerce space, amid concerns of financial challenges by the State agency – whose revenue has taken a hit from Internet-based mailing systems and the entry of private couriers in the sector.

“The application will offer peer-to-peer transactions; these are electronic money transfers made from one person to another through intermediaries. There will also be business to customer disbursements and customer to business disbursements as well,” said Stephen Kaguchia, the Managing Director, Viewtech Limited.

The new revamped application was unveiled during the 147th World Post themed “Post for Planet” where the corporation also unveiled the Dugong commemorative stamp to sensitize the public on the need to protect the marine mammal that has been classified as rare under the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act.

“The era of disbursing money physically is over; with this partnership you will be assured seamless connectivity across different platforms including financial institutions and retail outlets among others,” added Kagwe. The application allows for payment of goods and services and transfer of money in a convenient way.

The move will also see the corporation extend government and county disbursements and revenue collection services, loan disbursement for microfinance institutions and saccos; disbursement of government stipends, individual statutory remittances such as NHIF and NSSF at affordable rates.

“PostaPay will offer competitive transactional costs and real time visibility of revenue collection. It is our strategic intent to position Posta Kenya as the preferred payments partner for Government to People payments (G2P) and People to Government payments at affordable rates,” noted Kagwe.

The corporation is looking to tap into the unbanked and underserved citizenry in the rural areas, with an aim of playing a key role in the expansion of financial inclusion while at the same time bridging the digital divide.

SasaPay is one of the payment service providers licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya. The deal will shift physical Posta money transfers to electronic transfers where the end receivers collect from the post office.