Sarafu

Safaricom set to introduce a - surprise, surprise- Lipa Na M-PESA Card

It’s no secret, short range payments are M-PESA’s Achilles heel. Safaricom’s celebrated remittance service has simply failed to take off in short range payments. When it comes to making payments at the till…

Safaricom’s best chance to take on Uber lies in an old tool — the SIM Card — not an app.

As the curtain drew on the 19th century, the first motor vehicles took to the street. Human history had been altered forever.

Replacing your Lipa Na Mpesa SIM card line

I recently had to replace my Lipa Na Mpesa line as my initial SIM card had been damaged before I even got a chance to actually put it to use.

Turns out that replacing your Lipa Na Mpesa SIM card isn’t at all difficult. In fact the…

Apple services banned in China: Apple Pay next?

The B.B.C reported today that Apple’s iTunes and iBooks services have been suspended in China. This puts Apple’s Apple Pay in China mobile payments plans in jeopardy. Apple Pay seems to have be saved the chop but it is not clear whether it will…

How Sidian formerly K-Rep Bank wants to find its groove with mobile tech.

K-Rep was the stuffy, NGO-esque bank with dull, staid brown at its offices and branches, that advertised as the bank for microfinance. Its dull staid name was derived from an acronym. Yes, an acronym…

Old bankers don’t steal, they just borrow without security : Lessons from Chase Bank on how FinTech alone can’t save a bank.

Chase Bank (no relation to its American namesake) was placed under receivership last week. The bank often touted itself…

Branch raises USD 9.6M from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla and Formation 8 in Series A

Mobile-based financial services company Branch announced Thursday last week it had raised a Series A equity funding round of USD 9.6 million (KES 1B), as it positions itself for further…