BitPesa Uses Bitcoin to Slash Kenyan Remittance Costs
BitPesa.co, a new global remittance company servicing Kenya's ever-expanding population, is planning to use bitcoin. The company is targeting Kenya's $1.17bn annual remittance market by offering a 3% cut-rate fee on all transfers, Bloomberg Businessweek reported today. Bitpesa's CEO Elizabeth Rossiello said the new service is aiming to gain 1% of Kenya's remittance market within a year of launching in March 2014: a figure that will equate to roughly 6,500 transactions per month. According to Rossiello: "There are no other market entrants trying to solve the problem of the very high cost of....
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Bitcoin remittance provider BitPesa has officially launched its beta test. The Kenya-based company offers a 3% cut-rate fee, and is aiming to target the country's expats abroad who send $1.17bn home annually, according to The Wall Street Journal. Users send their bitcoin to BitPesa, which then converts the amount into the local Kenyan currency and sends it on to the recipient. The service promises same-day delivery and no hidden fees. BitPesa aims to disrupt a traditional remittance market that often imposes high costs on those wishing to use remittance services. For example, the cost of....
As mobile payments and cryptocurrency have made strides providing an alternative to traditional banking in Kenya, legal conflicts have emerged among mobile currency providers and Safaricom, the nation's dominant telecom service. Kenyan legal authorities may need to clarify how anti-money laundering/know your customer (AML/KYC) and other regulations will be enforced and who will enforce them. BitPesa, a bitcoin payments and remittance service which uses the Safaricom telecom, and Lipisha, the payment gateway for both BitPesa and M-Pesa, are suing Safaricom in Kenya, according to....
Bitcoin remittance startup BitPesa has lost one of its board members following his appointment to a government position. Nairobi tech news site TechMoran reported today that Joe Mucheru, who previously served in a regional leadership role for Google, is stepping down from BitPesa’s board and is divesting his shares in a bid to remove any conflicts of interest in his role as head of the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology. Mucheru was named to the post in November, according to local reports, a move that came amid a reshuffling of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cabinet.
A lawsuit filed by bitcoin payments startup BitPesa and its partner against mobile money giant Safaricom was heard in the Kenyan High Court on Tuesday. The startup says Safaricom "intimidated" its gateway partner, Lipisha, forcing it to suspend its services without prior notice, according to Kenyan newspaper the Daily Nation. The stoppage came into effect on 12th November. As a result, BitPesa and Lipisha are facing significant challenges to maintaining their business. A lawyer for the two firms told the Daily Nation that BitPesa is "at risk of collapse" because it's now unable to conduct....
A Kenyan High Court judge has ruled that M-Pesa operator Safaricom will not be required to grant access to bitcoin startup BitPesa amid an ongoing legal dispute. The move comes after the mobile payments firm Lipisha, along with BitPesa, asked the High Court of Kenya for a preliminary order that would enable access while their petition against Safaricom is being considered. As reported last month, BitPesa lost access to M-Pesa in mid-November when its payments gateway partner Lipisha had its account suspended by Safaricom. BitPesa had used Lipisha as a way to offer M-Pesa as a payment....