Kenya-based mobile money aggregator called Kopokopo is today running an event in the country’s capital Nairobi focused on pushing for a cashless economy.
Kopokopo says it is inviting Nairobi to celebrate “this cashless day” by ditching the hard cash for phone-based purchases.
While speaking to HumanIPO, Amrit Pal, a member of the KopoKopo team, commented on the challenges based on assumptions that surcharges accrue from paying firms by mobile money without pay bill accounts saying: “It is surprisingly easy. I’ve been sharing the experiment with friends across the world and they wouldn’t imagine attempting this, be it Japan, Brazil, India or the US.”
“The 60-day movement was inspired by M-Pesa’s popularity worldwide as a sign and a tremendous vantage point to lead the World’s cashless future,” Pal said.
Pal told HumanIPO that Kenya’s mobile money, the M-Pesa, began and has made remarkable changes in Kenya and across the world, however, he says, from the look of things, the main goal has been lost along the way.
With 30 members from around the city, they are confident to hit much higher numbers before the campaign ends on July 31.
“The surcharges do bite in the beginning. I paid about 4.75 percent in fees through the first week, but scaled it down to 1.7 percent after 4 weeks. It was a combination of a little persistence, a lot of thriftiness and user-friendly options like Buy Goods. The rules of the engagement don’t allow me to touch cash, so no withdrawal charges,” Pal said.
According to Pal, the biggest lesson is that M-Pesa was designed with a Send Money Home and cannot be used for daily Payments. It is a remittance service and can be prohibitively expensive for Payments.
“You wouldn’t use Western Union Transfer to buy grocery,” he said.
Kopokopo was founded by Dylan Higgins and Ben Lyon in 2011 and integrates mobile money systems into SME’s and retailers to help them accept mobile money. The firm has been on the forefront of cashless move with its software.
Kenya has been on the forefront of mobile money since M-Pesa was founded in the country 2007.
