Following months of development and testing, the new M-PESA app is now official. The app was officially launched this morning by Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa and Chief of Financial Services Sitoyo Lopokoiyit. The M-PESA Super App has so far been downloaded more than 1.3 million times while the M-PESA for Business App has seen more than 100,000 downloads since their introduction in December and June 2020.
One of the features of the app is Offline Mode, which will enable customers to use the M-PESA Super App and complete transactions even without data bundles or when totally offline. Mini-Apps will enable customers and businesses complete day-to-day and occasional tasks within the M-PESA Super App and M-PESA for Business App, including deliveries, ticket booking, shopping, licences applications, insurance and much more from hundreds of businesses, government agencies, utilities and other firms.
“Smartphones have increasingly become popular as they connect customers to more opportunities empowering them to achieve more at work, in their business, when learning and even for entertainment. In response, we have designed the M-PESA Super App to enhance our customers’ experience every time they use the service, providing them with a simple, fun, secure and convenient digital solution,”
Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO
Mini-Apps can be accessed through the “Discover” tab on the App while merchants on Lipa Na M-PESA can do so through the “Hub” option on the M-PESA for Business App. The services available as Mini-Apps include Madaraka SGR ticketing, long distance bus booking with BuuPass, event tickets on Mtickets, shopping gift vouchers on GiftPesa Vouchers, insurance services on eBima, and gas delivery from Pro-Gas. Safaricom says that Mini-Apps for businesses on Lipa Na M-PESA will be available in coming weeks under the “Hub” option.
The app is also secured by fingerprint and face unlock where customers can use either face unlock or fingerprint to open the app and to confirm a transaction in place of their M-PESA PINs. Other features available on the app include detailed usage statements and an M-PESA “Send to Many” option where customers can make multiple transactions to different recipients but only need to enter their PIN or authentication once. Customers can equally “Request Money” from a sender who will only need to confirm the transaction by keying their PIN.
The app also has an option to personalise transactions by attaching a GIF when sending money or by adding descriptions to transaction details. Such descriptions would prove useful to provide personal explanations to transactions. Also included in the app is the addition of Pochi La Biashara and M-PESA Global options. With M-PESA Global customers can send money to other mobile phone customers around East Africa, and to other countries directly into bank accounts, Western Union, or link and transact through PayPal.
Other features are the M-Shwari loan services which can be found on the “Grow” tab and the “My Spend” tab which shows the amount spent by the customer for every month. Transactions are broken down into categories like “Family and Friends”, “Withdrawal”, “Bills and Services” and “General” transactions.
To mark the launch of the new features, Safaricom will award all customers who book SGR tickets on the Madaraka Express Mini-App with 10% of the value back into their M-PESA accounts.
All customers who download the M-PESA Super App for the first time will get 500 MB of free Safaricom data. In addition, every 10th customer to download the app for the first time over the next three days will get KES 500 into their M-PESA account.
The M-PESA Super App is available for download on Google Play Store and Apple Store.
