The Kenyan Bitcoin wallet, Kipochi, has announced the integration of its Bitcoin wallet service with the highly popular M-Pesa platform.
The start up firm Kipochi, which means “wallet” in Swahili, launched a new feature that will allow consumers to send and collect Bitcoin transfers, reported Yahoo Finance. The service goes a step further and will additionally allow users to convert the virtual currency to and from their M-Pesa balances. Consumers are now able to send and receive Bitcoins to anyone around the world who can access the Internet from their mobile phone.
Kipochi is continuously working on initiatives to improve financial inclusion, and is trying to make global money transfers easier for all consumers, especially those in developing nations.
By bringing together Bitcoins, a mobile wallet and M-Pesa into a uniform service, Kenyans are given more alternatives. Kipochi is offering money transfers with low fees, and it will compete with money transfers services offered by FIs and branches like Western Union. At present, Kipochi’s money exchange is already cheaper that its competitors, since Bitcon only charges US $0.04.
M-Pesa, which already has a 17-million consumer following, accounts for 31 percent of Kenya’s national GDP. Combining the well-received M-Pesa service with new features that aim to simplify and quicken the process could lead to the increase of remittance flows.
Jeff Berwick, the founder of the Bitcoin ATM, told HumanIPO that he believes that Africa is a natural market for the virtual currency to flourish.
He explained, “We believe Bitcoin will be a revolution in currency and value transfer and hope that more Africans realize this is something that will set them more free from their governments.”
M-Pesa continues to be a model in the remittance market, and Kenyan consumers were quick to adopt its services in a short period of time. Time will tell if consumers will warm up to the still-mysterious virtual currency and the new mobile wallet integration.
To read the full story at Yahoo Finance click here, or to read the story at HumanIPO click here.
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