M-Pesa Africa, Thunes to enable payments in China

M-Pesa Africa, the mobile money joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom Group, has partnered with global payment provider Thunes to facilitate payments for mobile money users traveling to China.

The initiative will allow customers in Kenya and Tanzania to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments at Chinese merchants through the M-Pesa Super App.

In a post on X, M-Pesa Africa announced that Safaricom customers in Kenya and Vodacom customers in Tanzania will soon be able to scan to pay at Chinese merchants without needing to convert currency.

Payments will be made directly from their M-Pesa accounts.

The company said that historically M-Pesa users encountered challenges when making payments in China, as many merchants primarily accept local cashless payment methods like Alipay and WeChat Pay.

M-Pesa's recent partnerships

M-Pesa has previously partnered with Alipay and WeChat Pay to facilitate remittance payments to China.

The expanded collaboration with Thunes is expected to improve the payment experience for M-Pesa users traveling abroad.

The partnership will allow customers in Kenya and Tanzania to use their M-Pesa wallets to make payments at Chinese merchants through the M-Pesa Super App. (Source: WorldRemit Comms on Flickr via CC 2.0)

In October 2024, Safaricom extended its M-Pesa Global service to Ethiopia, allowing customers to make mobile money transactions between Kenya and Ethiopia.

Customers in both countries will only require an M-Pesa wallet to make cross-border payments.

Related:Safaricom to launch M-Pesa 'super app'

In addition to Ethiopia, M-Pesa customers can also send and receive money to over 190 countries.

In March 2024, M-Pesa's parent company Safaricom also signed an international money transfer agreement with Onafriq to help streamline remittance flows in Ethiopia.