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Airtel Takes Aim at M-PESA With a Kenyan Virtual Card

The Airtel Money Global Pay Card is already live in three countries. A Kenyan launch date has not been announced.

Founder and Editor
2 min read
An Airtel executive speaking at an Airtel Money business update
Image: TechTrendsKE

[ The short version ]

  1. 01Airtel plans to launch the Airtel Money Global Pay Card in Kenya, built with Mastercard and funded from the Airtel Money wallet.
  2. 02It already runs in Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania. No Kenyan launch date, fees or limits have been given.
  3. 03Safaricom's rival, M-PESA GlobalPay, runs on Visa and has been available since 2022.

Airtel Money plans to launch a virtual card in Kenya that lets customers pay international online merchants straight from their mobile wallet, TechTrendsKE reports. The card is built with Mastercard.

How it would work

Customers pay from their Airtel Money wallet balance through a virtual card number, without first moving money into a bank account. It would work with online merchants and digital services that accept Mastercard, such as Netflix, Spotify and Amazon.

11%
Airtel Money's share of Kenya's mobile money marketUp from 10.9% the previous quarter, and below 2% about four years ago

What is still unknown

  • Launch date: none given for Kenya. The card is also planned for the DRC and Gabon.
  • Fees, exchange rates and limits: not announced.
  • Airtel says more than 875,000 cards have been issued in the markets where it already operates.

M-PESA GlobalPay, introduced with Visa in 2022, does the same job for Safaricom customers. The contest is over who owns the online checkout in Kenya.

Sources and notes
  • #AirtelMoney
  • #Mastercard
  • #Fintech
  • #Kenya

[ Written by ]

Founder and Editor

Victor Oluwaleye founded TheStak to explain what tech, AI and marketing actually change for the people running businesses, in Africa and beyond. A computer scientist by training and a marketer by trade, Victor has spent more than a decade leading marketing teams and building digital systems inside organisations, and runs Induuce Consultants, a growth and digital transformation agency in Lagos. More about Victor

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