Kenyan payments startup, PesaPal, expanding into Zimbabwe

Kenyan internet payments startup PesaPal is expanding into Zimbabwe. Agosta Liko, the founder of the company told us recently that their focus for the Zimbabwe entry is eCommerce, Tourism, Hotels, School fees and bill payments. Pesapal already provides similar payment services in Kenya where it’s biggest, but it also has operations in Tanzania, Uganda.

Locally, Liko said they are working to integrate mobile payment service such as EcoCash. We’ll probably see Telecash as well we’re guessing. Liko also said they are also working on Bank to PesaPal wallet and Mobile to PesaPal wallet solutions and are in discussions with local financial institutions to have this in place.

Without the integration of local Zim mobile money services yet, PesaPal will just be an attractive option for local eCommerce companies looking to accept Mastercard and Visa payments on their websites. Zimbabwe is fertile ground for payments startups targeting eCommerce companies as payment options that are available in other countries – like PayPal – have some restrictions locally. Local banks have also been reluctant to embrace eCommerce so far.

Liko didn’t give any specific timelines for when they’ll be up and running with local payment options but indicated that they have a team on the ground setting up.