The East African market FinTech space is rife with competition. Just recently, Kenya’s biggest mobile service carrier Safaricom launched the 1Tap service allowing people to pay for goods by simply taping at the merchant’s mobile Point of Payment (mPOS). Then the money to pay for bought goods and services are immediately transferred from their M-Pesa wallet to the merchants M-Pesa wallet as a form of cashless transaction.
Well, another Kenya-based FinTech company has released mPOS kit for merchants to accept cashless payments at their stores. Pesapal, has launched Sabi, a chip-and-pin NFC powered mPOS looking to free merchants and customers from the burden of carrying paper cash around with them. Instead, the customer will make payments for good and services bought at the store by simply focusing their phone near the Sabi mPOS unit and make the payments digitally.
From the face of things, Sabi seems to be having an upper hand over Safaricom 1Tap service. The latter is restricted to customers using the mobile wallet M-Pesa; which there aren’t that many outside Kenya in the East African region. While with Sabi, any user can download the app from the App Store, load their Pesapal wallet by numerous means including mobile money and straight from their bank accounts.
That means Sabi users can make payment using multiple currencies and platforms, given the cordial relationship Pesapal has nurtured with banks, credit cards companies, and mobile service carriers over the years. Pesapal has positioned Sabi to be readily available for use by customers across multiple currencies and platforms.
The Pesapal CEO, Agosta Liko said: “We exist to bolster financial and digital inclusion in the markets we are in. we offer businesses freedom to access services that they have traditionally had more difficulty getting, either due to their size or volumes. With Sabi, we are doing this in the most accessible, affordable, and mobile way available anywhere.”
Liko also reiterated Pesapal’s commitment to financial inclusion by taking its FinTech solutions to the economy sectors that have traditionally been excluded such as the informal sector. The company hopes that small and informal businesses will also get the option of accepting cashless payment from their customers while using Sabi.
How Sabi payments work
Pesapal says Sabi payments are made via Bluetooth connection through the Sabi mPOS terminals being offered. The terminals are easily portable and can do an average of 250 transactions on a single charge.
The terminals also can process payments made via chip-and-pin cards as well as NFC contactless payments. Business owners can also view the transaction history and give the receipt for the payments using the Sabi Android app.
Pesapal says they are also working to support other digital wallets like M-Pesa, mVisa, and the American Express as well as one of the payment options for the user (customer).
How as a Business you can get the Sabi mPOS terminal
If you are a business looking to start accepting cashless payment from your customer using the Pesapal Sabi mPOS. Head on to Pesapal.com/business/pos and sign up and agree to the merchant contract. From there, you can purchase the Sabi terminal, which will then be delivered to your business premises, and a Pesapal technician will help you with setting it up. You can begin accepting cashless payment on the mPOS terminal within the first 24 hours of setting up.
