Visa is collaborating with regional banks and fintech firms in order to introduce contactless payments in Kenya.
Customers will be able to make purchases without using a card or physical wallet.
Customers can utilise the Thales-powered service to make in-store purchases using their banking app by tapping their Near-field communication-enabled smartphones at any contactless payment terminal.
In addition to being more convenient, contactless payments are more secure than magnetic stripe cards because they are harder for thieves to skim.
Data entering for a contactless transaction is encrypted, making it challenging to steal or intercept, claims Investopedia.
The client and the business may more easily keep track of their money thanks to the documentation of every transaction. Less cash on hand means fewer security concerns for vendors, which is a plus.
Kenya Commercial Bank, Visa, and Thales joined together in June 2023 to introduce a contactless payment service.
In Nakuru County, Safaricom introduced the contactless payments service M-PESA 1Tap in May 2017.
Four months later, the telecom expanded the service to five more counties: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Eldoret, and Nyeri. By that time, over 90,000 users and 2,000 merchants had signed up. However, the contactless payment system passed away peacefully.
