M-PESA International Money Transfer Service, Safaricom
- Responsible Organisations: Safaricom Kenya (Civil society)
- ILO Regions: Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe and Central Asia; Global
- Country(ies): Congo, Democratic Republic of the; Egypt; Fiji; Global coverage; India; Kenya; Lesotho; Mozambique; Romania; South Africa; Tanzania, United Republic of; United Kingdom
- Thematic areas: Migration and development
- MLFLM: 15.
Description
M-PESA (M is for mobile, pesa is Swahili for money) is a mobile money transfer service that enables millions of people who have access to a mobile phone, but do not have or have only limited access to a bank account, to send and receive financial transfers and complete basic banking transactions using their mobile phones. First launched in Kenya in 2007, M-PESA is the result of a partnership between Vodafone and Safaricom, a Kenyan mobile network operator. M-PESA's International Money Transfer (IMT) service allows anyone wishing to send money to Kenya to visit one of several Safaricom IMT partners (such as Post Finance, World Remit, and Western Union) and send money to an M-PESA mobile phone in Kenya. Money transfers are received almost instantly, and at no expense to the recipient. At the end of March 2012, M-PESA Kenya was reported to have 15 million active customers who transferred an estimated KES 56 billion every month. With over 37,000 mobile money agents, M-PESA is linked with 25 banks and can be accessed via 700 ATMs. The service has expanded to several other countries since its launch, including Tanzania, Fiji, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Mozambique, Egypt, Lesotho, and Romania.
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