AfricaPress-Tanzania: VODACOM Tanzania has announced the opening of the M-Pesa Application Programing Interface (API) to help local and international developers create innovative use of mobile payment service.
Vodacom M-Pesa as the leading mobile financial system has undergone transformation over the years, including a historic migration and upgrade to a second-generation platform which was robust, faster, more secure and futuristic and more importantly hosted locally in Tanzania for easier maintenance.
The platform has since earned international recognition, including GSMA certification.
Addressing the developers and Fintech ecosystem stakeholders, Vodacom Tanzania Managing Director Hisham Hendi said, the opening of the M-Pesa API App was another step to fuel innovation in the country around Fintech and digital business.
“Having a vision to digitalise the country, the company supports innovation ecosystems to come up with solutions that transform lives that is why we have now opened our API making it easier for your businesses and developers to integrate with our the M-Pesa system, allowing you to test and enable a wide range of extra capabilities to the system that will bring real change,” he said.
The opening of M-Pesa API complements other recent ingenuities by the company like ‘Lipa Kwa Simu’, an interoperable service, international Money Transfers (IMT) and the M-Pesa App all aimed at creating a cashless society and driving a digital economy.
“The fully-fledged development infrastructure enables businesses to work independently with their developers and opens space for innovations in re-designing their payment interface independently, creating a customised payment system without directly engaging us,” Mr Hisham noted.
Vodacom M-Pesa Director Epimack Mbeteni said the new open M-Pesa API enhanced digital user experience, making it more convenient, faster and efficient to integrate payment systems in a financial service platform.
He called on developers to utilise them and devise new applications for business-toconsumer, consumer-to-business and business-to-business that could be plugged into the open tech backbone.
“With the open M-Pesa API it is now faster and easier for you to test the integration of your prototypes with our system. We hope to see more ideas, applications and businesses utilise our system to offer more and improved services to customers,” he said.
Customers and end-users will benefit from the innovation of developers in getting more customised payment services. It also opens up possibilities for further innovation of unique service options associated with M-Pesa.
