The Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) has signed a partnership agreement with Viewtech, the company behind SasaPay, to offer mobile money transfer services through its electronic payment system dubbed PostaPay.
Viewtech will provide PCK with Wallet as a service (WaaS) that will now provide 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 CEO and Postmaster General of Postal Corporation of Kenya.
Kagwe, speaking on Friday at a Nairobi hotel, said that the new and revamped PostaPay app will now be available on Google Play Store as Posta Kenya moves to respond to the fast-changing consumer needs in adaptation of new technologies.
The signing of this partnership with Posta Kenya will see the corporation offer mobile money transfer services to Kenyans at convenient and affordable rates. SasaPay is one of the payment services providers licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya.
“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. Day
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.
At a business and corporate, Kagwe noted, the corporation would now be able to offer 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,” said 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.
By Joseph Ng’ang’a
