Good news for Mpesa users in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret and Nyeri. Mpesa 1 Tap is now in your towns after the service launched for the first time outside of Nakuru today. Nakuru is where it was launched four months ago and the spread to other towns follows successful trials there. Already more than 90,000 customers and 2,000 merchants have taken up the service.
Mpesa 1 Tap is a relatively new technology from Safaricom that reduces the 8 steps it takes to Lipa na Mpesa to just two steps. It has been in discussions and development since 2012. To make payments, customers will only need to tap their card, wristbands or stickers on the Mpesa 1 Tap point of sale which merchants will have, enter their PIN on their phone to confirm, and complete payment. These tags are available from Safaricom shops and dealers from Ksh. 20.
.@vivoenergykenya takes about 5 minutes to serve a Lipa na Mpesa customer. It will come down to an estimated 2 minutes with #Mpesa1Tap
— Shiko-Msa (@Shiko_Msa) October 3, 2017
Other than ease and convenience, the new payment system will also offer customers a higher level of privacy and can do away with the idea of having to show confirmation messages to merchants after paying. This has been the case in many cases. For me this was more of irking than anything else. Also, say goodbye to entering wrong Till Numbers. Mpesa 1 Tap eliminates the need to feed in numbers and this is certainly a good level of convenience.
“Cash is slow. Cash can only move as fast as a human being can move” – Bob Collymore #Mpesa1Tap
— Shiko-Msa (@Shiko_Msa) October 3, 2017
Some of the merchants who are already on board Mpesa 1 Tap and at whose businesses customers can pay via this service are Shell petrol stations, KenolKobil, KFC, Choppies, Oil Libya, Naivas and Quickmart. M-PESA 1Tap will be progressively rolled out to other leading supermarkets, petrol stations, and restaurants.
Safaricom promises that more convenient M-PESA 1Tap solutions are set to be rolled out in future.
