Safaricom has launched a new payment service targeted at the rental market in Kenya. The service, dubbed Lipa Kodi na MPESA (which means ‘pay rent with MPESA’) will enable MPESA users to pay their rent through it and landlords to receive rental dues through it.
The service will cost between Kshs.6 (for transactions of upto to Kshs. 5,000) and Kshs. 220 (for transactions between Kshs.50, 000 and Kshs.70,000).
Kenya’s rental market is valued at an estimated Kshs.17.2B and it makes business sense for Safaricom to target this market.
Safaricom intends to recruit Estate Agents, diaspora Based Land lords, local Authority and Private Landlords which will make adoption of the service among rent payers a bit easier. Some landlords are already collecting rent via MPESA but in the normal way so it will be interesting to see if they will adopt this service.