Typing M-PESA Till and PayBill numbers could soon feel like a thing of the past, as Safaricom moves to make payments as simple as scanning a code or tapping a phone , a shift that could fundamentally change how millions of Kenyans pay at the counter.
Safaricom, in partnership with Pesapal, has rolled out Dynamic Scan-to-Pay and Tap-to-Pay services through Pesapal’s point-of-sale (POS) terminals, giving Kenyan customers new ways to complete M-PESA transactions without manually entering payment details.
Under Dynamic Scan-to-Pay, customers can scan a QR code displayed on a Pesapal POS device using their phones. The merchant details and payment amount are automatically populated, allowing customers to verify the information before completing the transaction.
The Tap-to-Pay option allows customers with NFC-enabled smartphones to tap their devices against a compatible Pesapal POS terminal. Customers can then review the transaction and authorise the payment using their M-PESA PIN or available biometric authentication.
The partnership comes as Safaricom expands its wider push to simplify M-PESA payments. The company has also introduced AI Pay through its My OneApp, allowing customers to scan printed or handwritten receipts, with the system identifying and filling in available Till or PayBill details and the payment amount.
Safaricom says Scan-to-Pay is already available at more than 60,000 merchant outlets, with a target of reaching 500,000 outlets within the next year.
The new payment options could reduce manual entry, payment errors and checkout time for customers while giving businesses using Pesapal additional ways to accept M-PESA payments.
The move signals a broader shift in Kenya’s mobile-money ecosystem, where convenience is increasingly becoming a key part of how customers pay for goods and services.
The bigger question is whether the familiar M-PESA routine of entering Till or PayBill numbers is slowly becoming obsolete.
