Pesapoint ATMs Pay Out Over 100 $ Million M-Pesa Remittances

 

Nairobi, Kenya: Since the launch of M-Pesa, some $100 million has been withdrawn by remittance recipients from PesaPoint ATMs, without the need for bank cards or a bank accounts says Mr. Bernard Matthewman, the CEO of Pesapoint, Kenya’s premier Independent ATM Deployer (IAD).

Part of the early challenge in launching the service, says Mr. Matthewman, was convincing banks that people outside major cities were potential customers. Many of the people M-Pesa hoped would sign up had never used an ATM before, let alone used an ATM without a card.

In 2008, Safaricom and PesaPoint had entered into a partnership that will allow M-PESA
registered customers to withdraw money from PesaPoint ATMs using their Safaricom
phone, without the use of an ATM card.“M-PESA customers can now enjoy faster processing of withdrawals at more than 110 PesaPoint ATMs in 46 towns around the country,” the then Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Mr Michael Joseph said.

“Our partnership with PesaPoint has facilitated an exciting innovation of the M-PESA
service to provide exciting new functionality to our customers. This connection between
mobile money transfer and financial services infrastructure is world leading and presents
the potential for even more services going forward” said Joseph.

On his part, PesaPoint Managing Director Bernard Matthewman said “The service will be
available to M-PESA registered customers at PesaPoint ATMs 24 hours a day, seven
days a week, 365 days per year offering increased convenience to M-PESA customers.”
“Unbanked Kenyans can now access their money at any PesaPoint ATM. Kenya is the
1st country in the world in which card-less transactions at an ATM are available for
traditionally unbanked users of mobile phones to withdraw cash” he continued. He
added that PesaPoint customer service representatives have been deployed to assist M-
PESA users with their withdrawals and that a strong educational campaign was being
launched in the media.

Matthewman said that PesaPoint will continue to partner and innovate with firms like
Safaricom to provide a wide range of transactional services through its operations in
East Africa, to ensure customers access fast, affordable and convenient services
wherever they are.

The service is available to registered M-PESA customers, who can now use their
Safaricom phone to withdraw between 200 & 20,000 KShs from a PesaPoint ATM.
Customers request for a withdrawal from their M-PESA menu and receive a one-time
ATM Authorisation Code. They input this Code into the ATM together with their
Safaricom phone number and the amount they wish to withdraw; the PesaPoint ATM
then dispenses their cash and a receipt.