60 Minutes' Highlights How Mobile Payment Service M-Pesa Has Changed Life In Kenya
Regular followers of mobile payment technology know that Kenya stands as one of the most successful mobile payment stories, thanks to the widespread use of the M-Pesa mobile payment service in that country. Kenya's success in this area jumped onto the global spotlight this week thanks to a report on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes." Whether or not the "60 Minutes" segment, which gave an overview of how average Kenyans are conducting mobile commerce using their smartphones, catapults M-Pesa as a mobile payment service remains to be seen. The report explores the many benefits that mobile commerce can....
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The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has warned that virtual currency is insecure and could fund terrorism, according to the Daily Nation. This comes a day after a court ruled that Safaricom, the nation's largest cell phone provider, will not have to reinstate access for BitPesa, Africa's largest bitcoin trading platform, to M-Pesa, the mobile payment service. 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, CCN recently reported. Safaricom stopped Lipisha from....
Bitcoin startup Kipochi struggled to maintain its bitcoin service in Kenya, after the country’s largest mobile operator Safaricom terminated the firm’s operation with Kopo Kopo, popular Kenya-based merchant payment service provider. Kipochi’s service enabled users of M-pesa, a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and micro-financing service launched by Vodafone for Vodacom and Safaricom to trade and receive remittances in Bitcoin using the M-Pesa network. Instead of securing partnership directly with M-Pesa however, the Kipochi team launched their service through Kopo Kopo, which....
Global bitcoin wallet service Kipochi has launched a product that allows people in Africa to send and receive bitcoins, plus convert them to and from the Kenyan currency M-Pesa. This will allow Kenyans to transfer money in an easier, faster and more cost effective way than is currently offered by banks and money transfer companies, such as Western Union and MoneyGram. Kipochi works on all mobile phones as it has SMS, USSD and HTML5 frontends, so there is no requirement for users to have the most up-to-date handsets. "We believe Bitcoin can truly help people in the developing world and....
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....
Kenyans using popular money transfer service M-Pesa to get bank loans can longer do so. The bank involved suddenly cut the service following a legislation update. M-Pesa Loans ‘On Hold For Now’. Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) gave neither warnings nor comments on the move. The decision followed the enactment of the country’s new Banking (Amendment) Act 2016....