KENYA – Kenya leading mobile network provider, Safaricom, has partnered Ant Financial Services – the world’s largest fintech services provider –to enable Kenyans shopping on AliExpress to pay for their purchases using M-PESA.

The partnership primarily targets micro-traders in the country who source for goods and other supplies from manufacturers in China.

The move signifies Safaricom’s continued push to position M-PESA as global mobile money transfer and payments platform.

Chief Customer Officer at Safaricom, Sylvia Mulinge, said: “Our more than 21 million customers can now enjoy the safety, reliability and convenience of M-PESA when shopping on AliExpress, a leading, global e-commerce marketplace.

This partnership seeks to connect Kenyans to even more business opportunities by enabling them to seamlessly source, purchase and import goods from the world’s leading manufacturer.”

AliExpress has been growing its base in Kenya, especially to customers who are on a constant lookout for electronics deals and through the partnership, AliExpress will be pricing its commodities in Kenya Shillings.

Kenyans shopping on Aliexpress.com will be presented with M-PESA as one of the payment options when checking out their shopping cart on the app or website.

Once customers select M-PESA, they will then key in their mobile phone numbers and subsequently receive a prompt on their phones to type their M-PESA PIN to complete the payment, CIO reports.

AliExpress customers selecting M-PESA as a payment channel will have their total cost displayed in Kenya Shillings with standard Lipa Na M-PESA Paybill charges applicable for each transaction.

“We are keen on leveraging the power of mobile technology to transform lives, and we see a great opportunity to do this by connecting people to people, to knowledge and to opportunities,” added Sylvia.

Sylvia noted that the partnership intends to brake trade barriers by enabling global e-commerce and at the same time enhancing Kenya’s participation in the international e-commerce marketplace.

A recent analysis by Citibank Group estimated Kenya’s e-commerce could be worth as much as US$5 billion in the long-term.

“Growth in online transaction volumes and the number of payments settled via e-wallet should drive payment fee revenue.

Based on the size of market revenues, the additional revenue opportunity for M-Pesa, we see an opportunity for Sh200 million-Sh1 billion (US$2 million – US$10 million) revenues to be generated from e-commerce transactions annually,” explained the report.

The service is already live on the AliExpress app and will be available on AliExpress.com in coming weeks.