Concerns about reversal by small and medium-sized businesses, such as matu and bodaboda operators, accelerated the adoption of Safaricom's Pochi La Biashara, with the number of cash registers more than doubling to 632,681 by the end of March this year.
There were 292,634 Pochi La Biashara cash registers in the same period last year as small businesses sought to separate business and personal cash. This product allows sellers to differentiate between business cash and personal cash. However, customers cannot cancel transactions made through Poti La Biashala. Poti la biashara has become rampant as more Kenyans pay for goods and services to merchants' mobile lines.
This increase brings the number of Pochi La Biashara stores closer to the number of active Lipa na M-Pesa stores, which increased by 4.3% to 633,009 stores during the study period.
These products are part of a solution built on Safaricom's mobile money platform M-Pesa.
M-Pesa's revenue rose 19.4% year-on-year to Sh139.91 billion by the end of March due to transactions and service transfers on the two Safaricom payment platforms, the telecom operator said on Thursday. It was revealed.
Safaricom launched the product in 2020 to allow small and medium-sized businesses that do not have a Lipa na M-Pesa line to receive money from customers in a separate wallet.
“A big concern for small business owners who use personal M-Pesa accounts to receive payments is how often people reverse and redeem funds transferred to purchase services or products. That is,” Safaricom said in a previous article.
“With Pochi La Biashara, funds cannot be withdrawn without the consent of the parties involved, protecting business owners from fraudulent customers.”
Safaricom launched Poti La Biashara products at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kenyans refrained from handling cash to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has waived fees for transactions below Sh1,000. The CBK later lowered this threshold to below 100 shillings and allowed people to pay matatu fees using mobile phones and other devices.
Before Pochi La Biashara, small businesses either asked their customers to include a withdrawal fee when sending money to a mobile number, or they could withdraw money through an M-Pesa agent. Small businesses also prefer Pochi La Biashara because the funds transferred to their business account are not deducted by Fuliza, the mobile overdraft facility. Additionally, business owners have access to their account statements and are free to opt in or out of the service.
