We can all agree, in the past 5 years or so, mobile money,
and precisely M-PESA arrived. There are over 18 million mobile money
subscribers in Kenya, and 90 percent of them use M-PESA. Driven by mobile phone
adoption, M-PESA has become an indispensable part of daily life.
Kenyans are using mobile money for transactions and services
including domestic and international remittances, bill payment, payroll
deposit, loan receipt and payment and purchase of goods and services ranging
from prepaid airtime to groceries to bus tickets to microinsurance.Kenyan consumers are paying their bills no matter where they are
Earlier this week I had a chance to meet up with Dylan Higgins and Ben Lyon, co-founders of Kopo Kopo , a company that has created
technology for merchants in Kenya to accept mobile payments.
Kopo Kopo enable small-to-medium sized businesses in Kenya leverage mobile money payments with a low cost subscription software.
Thanks to Kopo Kopo, accepting mobile money payments is no
longer a preserve of corporate; small businesses can do it too, and at a lower
cost.
Kopo Kopo allows small businesses to accept mobile payments,
as well as check clients M-PESA transactions in real-time from a computer or
from an Android Smartphone (Check out Kopo Kopo’s android app on the android market).
If you do not have an M-PESA paybill number Kopo Kopo will
help you get one within no time. As Dylan points out “we help businesses get
M-PESA paybill numbers and if a business has a paybill number we help them
integrate it with Kopo Kopo’s system”. Kopo Kopo also works with other mobile money
services.
Kopo Kopo also allows you to set up an sms campaign that
informs a client immediately that a business has received their payment. For
example, a coffee shop owner can set up an sms campaign that goes something
like this, “XYZ Coffee shop has received your payment for coffee. Thank you,
and enjoy your coffee”. Kopo Kopo also
lets you segment customers based on their actual purchase behavior.
The need and opportunity for mobile money are shared by
businesses and their customers. As Ben points out “to the consumer mobile
payments offer a convenient, secure way to pay. To the merchant, they offer the
means to to increase customer loyalty, minimize the risk of fraud or theft and
lower expenses of handling cash”.
Mobile money shopping represents a massive economic
opportunity for small businesses in Kenya. The speed with which Kenyans are using
mobile money to pay for goods and services is nothing compared to the change we
will see in the next five years.
Consumers in Kenya are using their mobile phones
to perform all sorts of functions- everything from shopping, store location,
shopping lists, earning loyalty points, and redeeming vouchers and coupons. The
question is what are you, as a business owner, going to do about it?
