First introduced in June 2013, Lipa Na M-Pesa is a service that allows all registered M-Pesa users pay for goods and services directly from their M-Pesa menu.
Likewise, it allows merchants to efficiency collect cashless payments as well as perform.other functions including paying for salaries and supplies.
The service is available under the M-Pesa menu on the Sim toolkit or on the MySafaricom app.
Since it's launch, the service has gained porpularity just like the M-pesa platform itself, and as of September 2020, the number of businesses on the service had had cro the 200,000 mark.
The platform has now become a widely accepted form of payments in supermarkets, petrol stations,h and restaurants and various other businesses countrywide. It has also provided an easy way for users to pay for bills like water, electricity and online TV subscription services.
In order to porpularise this service, Safaricom has carried out a number of improvements on the system as well as a number of promotions.
In December 2014, Safaricom carried out an incentive that rewarded customers with airtime every time they paid for fuel with Lipa na Mpesa.
In April 2015, Safaricom partnered with the Government Of Kenya to provide a one Paybill number 206206 for use in payment of government services through the e-citizen latform.
In July of the same year(2015), Safaricom improved the Lipa Na M-Pesa platform to allow merchants to receive funds after withdrawal from their merchant tills in real-time in their bank accounts.
The Lipa Na M-Pesa Shida NYUMBA promotion carried out in December 2015 saw all users as well as the over 18,000 merchants stand a chance to win one of the three three bedroomed houses, airtime or cash in a Ksh.118 million festive promotion.
In June 2016, Safaricom introduced the Bill Manager, a service that allowed users manage and pay bills via Mpesa all in a single transaction by dialling *234*1*3#.
While announcing the M-Pesa app on March 7th 2017, Safaricom also announced that they were reducing Lipa Na M-Pesa tariffs by half, a move that saw merchants charged a service fee of 0.5% of total transactions down from the initial 1%.
To further promote the platform, Safaricom carried out a two month Lipa Na M-Pesa Cash Back Promotion. Customers who met their weekly target received monetary rewards ranging from Ksh.5 to Ksh.100.
Another notable improvement to this service was the new update in November 2018 which deployed faster and more private cashless payment solution. The move removed the need for customers who paid for goods and services using the Buy goods option the need to show their transaction confirmation messages to till operators.
In June 2020, Safaricom launched the new M-Pesa Business app which targeted Lipa Na E merchants.
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The app now allows new business owners to apply for their till numbers online, as well as allow merchants track their cash flows on the platform.
The app provides a real time tracking of inbound as well as outbound cash flows, and provides merchants and an easier way to manage their finances.
The app also has a 'pay customer' option which allows merchants to quickly refund any erroneous deposits, pay their suppliers as well as pay salaries directly to their M-Pesa wallets.
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