Safaricom, the Kenyan mobile operator, is to allow customers to pay their rent through its M-Pesa mobile payment scheme.

The new payment platform is called ‘Lipa Kodi’ meaning ‘pay your rent’ and will charge customers a small fee of KES6 ($0.07) for transactions of KES5,000 or less. Customers who want to make large transactions will have to pay more, with transactions between KES50,000 and KES70,000 costing KES220.

Safaricom joined forces with the Kenyan government to provide mobile business registration. This new service aims to attract a broad customer base by offering convenience and cost efficiency to tenants, landlords and housing agents by providing them with a safe and reliable rent payment and collection mode.

Earlier this year the mobile operator added Lipa Na to its business, a service aimed at SMEs which allowed consumers to pay for goods and services by M-Pesa. At the time, CEO Bob Collymore said:

"M-Pesa was launched to facilitate the transfer of money from person to person but over the years it has evolved and we now want to mainstream it as a person to business payment solution before ultimately offering business to business solutions."

The Kenyan rental market is currently strong, with an estimated 6.5 million rental properties at a reported value of KES17.2bn. Urban populations are still growing rapidly, meaning there is little sign of a downward trend in the near future.

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