It’s hard to get a corporate mobile money account in Kenya.  Even if you have the requisite documents (certificate of incorporation, letter from the board, copies of National IDs, etc), it can still take months to get everything set up.  

As a result of the above, many small business owners accept mobile money payments to an individual mobile wallet.  Virtually every taxi driver in Nairobi, for instance, accepts payment via Safaricom M-Pesa (NOTE: Most drivers ask for an additional Ksh 15-25 to cover the cash-out tariff).  

Although person-to-person payments at the point of sale are common, they’re just beginning to pop up on e-commerce sites.  The following are good examples: 

PesaPay (www.pesapay.com) was developed by Whive in order to process payments for Bulk SMS bundles via Safaricom M-Pesa.  Note the personal phone number in red (0725274191).

Since payments are being sent to an individual mobile wallet, Whive can never exceed the daily transaction limit of Ksh 140,000 (around US $1,500).  Of course, it wouldn’t be difficult to switch to a second SIM when the balance of the first SIM nears its daily limit.  

eManamba (www.emanamba.com) lets consumers book bus tickets online and pay via Airtel Money, Safaricom M-Pesa, and Eazzy 24/7.  Note the personal phone number in red (0722221472).  The screenshot above walks through a person-to-person payment via the Eazzy 24/7 “Funds Transfer” and “Eazzy 24/7 Customer” menu options.  

Given that Eazzy 24/7 is a front-end for Equity Bank accounts, the transaction limit issue raised in the PesaPay example is mitigated.  

The workarounds above beg the following questions:

• Are the barriers to entry to getting a corporate account too high?
• Does the above have the potential to impact the perceived security of - and trust associated with - actual corporate accounts?
• Will Kenyan consumers treat e-commerce transactions the same way they treat transactions at the point of sale?  

Tell us what you think by commenting here, commenting on our Facebook Page, our sending us an @ reply on Twitter (@KopoKopoInc).

Ben Lyon, VP of Business Development (@bmlyon)