NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, May 16, 2014

By Bedah Mengo NAIROBI (Xinhua) — Small business operators in Kenya have for many years resisted mobile money payments as they preferred cash transactions.

However, as the popularity of mobile money rises in the East African nation, many of the traders are now adopting mobile phone payments to satisfy their customers’ demands.

Among the businesspersons embracing mobile payments are second- hand clothes dealers, butcheries, grocery stores, barbershops, salons, artisans, chemists and even shopkeepers.

The traders have been pushed to accept mobile money payments mainly by customers, who take goods on credit and then send cash later.

Grocery operator Grace Mutuku, who runs the business in Komarock, on the east of the capital Nairobi, is among traders who have embraced mobile money payments.

A good number of her customers pay through mobile money, some after taking the goods on credit.