Safaricom has partnered with Pesapal to introduce M-PESA tap-to-pay and QR payments on 30,000 point-of-sale terminals across Kenya.

Table Of Content

How the payment service works
Pesapal is the first tap-to-pay POS partner
Expansion of digital payments

The initial rollout covers Pesapal terminals, mainly located in restaurants, hotels and selected supermarkets, according to Pesapal founder Agosta Liko. The service is available to Pesapal merchants with compatible terminals and does not add a merchant fee.

How the payment service works

Customers with NFC-enabled Android phones or iPhones can hold their devices against a compatible Pesapal terminal to make an M-PESA payment. Those using phones without NFC can instead scan a QR code displayed on the same terminal.

The process continues to use the merchant’s existing M-PESA Till Number as the account receiving the payment. The cashier enters the amount on the Pesapal terminal, after which the customer reviews and authorises the transaction in My OneApp using an M-PESA PIN or biometric verification.

Customers pay no additional charge compared with making a payment through an M-PESA Till Number, while Pesapal merchants are not charged an extra fee for the service.

Liko said Pesapal spent six months testing the system before making it available to merchants with compatible terminals. He described the partnership as a move intended to support faster and more reliable transactions.

“Thousands of businesses trust our platform, and by teaming up with Safaricom, we are delivering the faster, error-free transactions their customers expect. Today, we activate the future of payments,” Liko said.

Pesapal is the first tap-to-pay POS partner

For now, Pesapal is Safaricom’s exclusive partner for tap-to-pay point-of-sale payments. A Safaricom representative said the company is in discussions with other POS providers about integrating with the service.

“For now, Pesapal is the partner on board, but there are ongoing discussions with other POS providers to integrate,” the representative said.

Pesapal worked with the Central Bank of Kenya before launching the new QR functionality. Safaricom’s existing scan-to-pay service can also process QR codes displayed by other merchants, meaning customers do not necessarily need a Pesapal terminal to complete a QR payment.

Expansion of digital payments

Safaricom says its scan-to-pay service is already available at more than 60,000 merchant outlets and is targeting 500,000 outlets within the next year. My OneApp, which is used to authorise the new payments, has recorded more than 7 million downloads, according to the company.

The launch comes as Kenya’s POS network continues to expand. Central Bank of Kenya data supplied by the companies showed more than 57,000 POS terminals in the country in August 2026, compared with 54,454 at the end of 2025. Pesapal said about 30,000 Kenyan terminals run on its platform, although the figures are not directly comparable.

James Maitai, Safaricom’s group chief technology officer, said the partnership forms part of the company’s broader payments strategy.

“Our partnership with Pesapal is an important part of that journey, bringing together our respective capabilities to shape the next generation of everyday payments,” Maitai said.

The new smartphone-based system differs from Safaricom’s earlier M-PESA 1Tap product, which used NFC-enabled cards, wristbands and stickers. That service was launched and discontinued in 2017 after failing to gain sufficient adoption.