Paul Arithi 
SasaPay, a leading digital payments service provider, has unveiled new strategy as the company targets to increase its customer base both in Kenya and the diaspora market.SasaPay’s new strategy centers around the provision of cutting-edge seamless financial solutions and ensuring a secure payments experience for a diverse range of businesses; including financial services sector players banks, Saccos and digital lenders, as well as SMEs in general trade, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, transport sector players, agricultural enterprises and
manufacturers.
SasaPay envisions playing a pivotal role in the Kenyan economy by acting as a bridge between businesses and capital providers, with the firm announcing it will facilitate quick, affordable access to working capital for businesses thus spurring business growth.“Through our rebrand, we aim to redefine the role of the payments and act as the meeting point between Kenyan businesses and their customers. Key to this will be empowering them to operate more efficiently to accelerate growth,” SasaPay Chief Operating Officer Daniel Njoroge said.
The firm further added in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, it shall apply its AI-based innovative technology to enable businesses scale by providing timely and accurate data to capital providers to fasten their decision making in funding SMEs. This will be in accordance to data protection regulations.
This way the businesses will grow, provide more employment and hence provide more households with dignified lifestyles thus directly participating in critical SDG goals like No Poverty, Decent Work &Economic Growth and reduced inequalities.
The firm unveiled disruptive models that will focus more on strategic partnerships engineered to enable its customers derive more value from their wallets through solutions in Savings, Lending, Investments and automated payments. Specialized focus groups will henceforth receive customized wallet propositions that fits their unique needs. SMEs for instance shall no longer pay any fee to get paid via SasaPay wallets, but shall instead see their wallet balances earning them interest through collaborative partnerships with financial institutions in line with the firm’s philosophy of Shared Prosperity.
Similarly, individual users will enjoy the most competitive transaction charges in the market and will see their wallet balances automatically earning them interest when not transacting.SasaPay users shall also be able to Shop and Pay later through its BNPL model dubbed “Shop Now Pay Later”. SasaPay is also eying the diaspora market with seamless transfer of funds from the diaspora to Kenya and cross-border payments from Kenya.
“We foresee SasaPay being the day-to-day transaction platform for Kenyans in the diaspora to empower them transact with their families, business interests and investments in Kenya seamlessly from wherever they are in the world.We shall be the first to enable Kenyans transact in foreign currency via their wallets, a breakthrough that has been made possible through its CBK-Regulated partner WapiPay,” Njoroge added.
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) statistics shows that Kenyans living abroad remitted Sh453 billion in 2022. In the first four months of 2023, Kenyans in diaspora sent home Sh185.9 billion. According to CBK, about 42 million mobile money transactions, valued about
Sh106.6 billion (USD 730 million), are made per day; in Kenya.
The number of mobile money subscribers in the country stands at 28 million.The financial inclusion in the country has risen from 26.7 percent in 2006 to 83.7 percent in 2021, one of the highest levels of financial inclusion globally.The latest CBK’s FinAccess report shows that usage of mobile money rose from 28 percent in 2009 to 81 percent in 2022.The proportion of Kenyans who use two or more financial services simultaneously has quadrupled, from just 18 per cent of the population in 2006 to 75 percent in 2022.
McKinsey, a consulting firm, predicts that the electronic payments market in Africa will grow by around 150 per cent within the next two years. “SasaPay seeks to establish Kenya as the gateway to Africa through a robust financial ecosystem.We are connecting SasaPay to diverse payments gateways across the world to ensure an individual or a business on the SasaPay platform can do business or any form of payment transactions with anyone from any part of the world,” added Mr. Njoroge.
