Safaricom’s general manager for financial services Betty Mwangi told HumanIPO the API is currently being built by Huawei Technologies in Romania and is already in the later stages of development.
“We expect it to be through in the coming months after which we shall offer it to our in-house developers to test the platform, from where we will realise vulnerabilities, if any,” Mwangi said.
The company says the greatest challenge is developing a platform that can support over 17 million customers and maintaining all security requirements as stipulated by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
“You realise the amounts that M-Pesa moves in a single day are significant and the regulator will not allow us to open up the platform unless we are sure it is more than secure,” she said.
Developers have been eagerly awaiting the release of the API as local innovators seek to tap into the successful platform and develop new products that can increase the scope to which products from M-Pesa can be used by businesses to streamline payment.