Safaricom has partnered with Equity Bank and Edomx Ltd to launch “Faraja” a zero-interest credit service. The service is expected to allow millions of its customers to shop for goods up to Sh100,000 and pay later.
Users of Faraja will be able to buy goods and services from as low as Sh20 to a maximum of Sh100,000 and pay the same amount without any extra fees witnessed on other credit product. In this case, only the normal M-pesa transaction charges will apply at the point of sale on the product to be bankrolled by Equity Bank.
Faraja, is slightly similar to the Lipa Later service currently in the market, only that this time, shoppers will walk away with the goods from a list of selected merchants without being required to pay upfront in instalments.
Safaricom and Equity are looking at making money from the surge in Lipa na Mpesa transactions at select stores. Already dozens of outlets have signed up to be merchants including Naivas Supermarket, Goodlife pharmacy and Citi walk, a shoe-selling store.
In the year to March, payments of Sh1.4 trillion were made through the Lipa-na-M-Pesa platform and a total of Sh9.78 trillion was paid through the M-Pesa the popularity of the platform as a means of commerce as opposed to paying via cash.
According to Safaricom, one will only be required to repay the outstanding facility amount as advanced to you using the designated Paybill number or such other channels as provided by us from time to time.