M-Pesa, which enables customers to transfer money and pay bills
via mobile phone, has 27.8 million users in the nation of 45
million people where Google's Android platform dominates. M-Pesa
has been mimicked across Africa and in other markets.
"This is very important to the developer ecosystem in markets
where credit card penetration is low," said Mahir Sain, head of
Africa Android partnerships at Google, which is owned by
Alphabet Inc.
Safaricom has 13 million smart phones on its network, most of
them using the Android platform. It partnered with London-based
global payments platform provider, DOCOMO Digital, to enable
users pay through M-Pesa, both firms said on Thursday.
Safariom started M-Pesa in 2007, offering money transfer
services between users. It has grown to allow users to make
payments for goods and services through thousands of merchants.
It also allows users to save, borrow and buy insurance, through
partnerships with commercial banks.
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Edmund Blair)
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