Safaricom and Pesapal Bring Tap-to-Pay and Scan-to-Pay to M-PESA, With a Target of 500,000 Outlets in a Year

Safaricom and Pesapal have launched Scan-to-Pay and Tap-to-Pay for M-PESA on Pesapal's point-of-sale machines, along with an AI Pay feature in Safaricom's My OneApp, TechMoran reports. The announcement was made on 1st October.

What Customers Can Do

Customers can scan a QR code on a Pesapal machine or tap an NFC-enabled smartphone against it to pay with M-PESA, with the transaction details filled in automatically, Techweez reports. The AI Pay feature in My OneApp, which has more than 7 million downloads, lets a customer scan a receipt, printed or handwritten, and have the Till or PayBill number and the amount filled in, TechMoran reports. Scan-to-Pay is already active at more than 60,000 outlets, and the companies say they want to reach 500,000 within a year.

What Safaricom and Pesapal Say

Safaricom's Group Chief Technology Officer, James Maitai, said: "This means moving beyond simply enabling payments to reimagining the payment experience itself." He added: "Our partnership with Pesapal is an important part of that journey, bringing together our respective capabilities to shape the next generation of everyday payments." Pesapal's founder, Agosta Liko, called the launch the biggest leap in Kenya's checkout experience in years. Looking further ahead, he said: "In the fullness of time, we want to be able to make you go, tap your device on the pump, enter the amount you want to pay, and then you fuel yourself."

Why the Scale Matters

M-PESA serves 41 million customers in Kenya and generated KES 182.7 billion in revenue in the year to March 2026, TechMoran reports. Moving from 60,000 to 500,000 outlets would put the new payment methods in a far larger share of the places where those customers already shop. For merchants, a QR code or a tap on a machine they already own is a smaller step than installing something new.

A Pattern Across African Payments

Payments are changing across the continent, and PINCHED has followed another example in Nigeria, where LotGrids is building an electric vehicle charging network that depends on easy payment at the point of use. Liko's petrol pump example points to the same idea: pay with a phone, without cash or a card.

What to Watch Next

The first figure to follow is the outlet count, since 500,000 within a year is the stated goal. The second is how many customers try AI Pay in My OneApp, and whether handwritten receipts are read accurately in practice.

This article is a news report on the launch, and PINCHED has not tested the features.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Scan-to-Pay on M-PESA?

It lets a customer scan a QR code on a Pesapal machine to pay with M-PESA, with the payment details filled in automatically.

What Is Tap-to-Pay on M-PESA?

It lets a customer tap an NFC-enabled smartphone against a Pesapal machine to pay with M-PESA.

What Does AI Pay in My OneApp Do?

It reads a scanned receipt, printed or handwritten, and fills in the Till or PayBill number and the amount.

How Many Outlets Support Scan-to-Pay?

More than 60,000, with a target of 500,000 within a year.

How Many M-PESA Customers Are There in Kenya?

41 million, according to figures in the launch announcement