Global payments infrastructure company TerraPay has partnered with Africa-based telecommunication company Safaricom to facilitate outbound cross-border remittances. According to the official release, the partnership was made possible through Mobex, TerraPay’s group company which acts as a licenced money remittance provider.

Mobex will enable more than 30 million M-PESA mobile wallet users in Kenya to make real-time transactions via TerraPay’s network across wallets in Bangladesh and Pakistan. What is more, the company has plans to extend this feature in India and Nepal in the upcoming months of 2023. News of this partnership comes as, given the popularity of cross-border deals, Safaricom’s M-PESA global transactions have seen significant growth in S1 in 2023.

Moreover, Kenya has also seen a surge in the adoption of mobile money payments, especially following the country’s Central Bank push for the service. Via this partnership, both companies seek to aid in the creation of a financially inclusive payment ecosystem that promotes financial empowerment, independence, and digitalisation. When commenting on TerraPay’s joint venture with Safaricom, a representative from the payments infrastructure provider stated that the company's goal from this collaboration is to bolster its capabilities in delivering an inclusive financial ecosystem paired with technical solutions.

More about TerraPay and Safaricom’s strategies and past developments TerraPay is a global payments infrastructure provider that helps companies extend real-time payments. The enterprise is registered and regulated across 27 markets and acts as a global partner to banks, mobile wallets, money transfer operators, and financial institutions in a bid to create an international financial ecosystem. The company has access to over 7.5 billion bank accounts, 2.1 billion mobile wallets across 112 receive countries, and 208 send countries.

Earlier in 2023, TerraPay garnered attention after it was announced that it secured a series of strategic partnerships with Visa, Attijariwafa bank, and Beyon Money, among others. Safaricom is a telecommunication company that extends its services to East Africa. The company counts for over 42 million customers and it supports more than one million jobs in the area.

The telecommunication provider offers connectivity using a diverse array of technologies, including 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G, collectively covering over 99% of Kenya's population. Safaricom is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. One important part of the company’s offerings has to do with its mobile payment system, M-PESA.

The mobile money transfer system is reportedly enabling over 30 million customers to transact, save, or borrow money via their mobile devices, leading to the expansion of digitalisation in the area. What is more, M-PESA has been instrumental in promoting financial inclusion throughout Kenya, as more than 84% of the adult population in the country currently use it to make payments in real time. .