AliExpress To Let Shoppers Use M-Pesa; CreditDigital Notches £2 Million Investment

Welcome to The Axis, your late look at payments news from around the world. Coverage includes Safaricom’s deal to let shoppers pay for goods on AliExpress.com through the M-Pesa mobile payment service, denominated in Kenyan shillings. In addition, CreditDigital has notched a £2 million investment from U.K.-based fund Fuel Ventures, and the Central Bank of the UAE noted that the country’s Indian residents represented a little more than a third of all remittances during the fourth quarter of 2019.

Safaricom has made a deal to let shoppers purchase goods on AliExpress.com through the M-Pesa mobile payment service, Reuters reported. Through the offering, Ant Financial would offer the method as an option and denominate transactions in Kenyan shillings. Safaricom said in a statement, according to the report, “The move especially targets microtraders in the country who source goods and other supplies from manufacturers in China.” Safaricom, which is partly owned by Vodafone from the U.K. and Vodacom from South Africa, reportedly leads the Kenyan market, with 30 million subscribers or 65 percent of cell phone users. M-Pesa has grown into “a major profit driver for Safaricom,” per the report.

In other news, CreditDigital has notched a £2 million investment from U.K.-based fund Fuel Ventures, according to reports. Fuel Ventures’ investment is said to be used toward growing the product offering and the company’s business in the U.K. The company offers an installment payment option that allows businesses to spread the cost of a purchase over a year. CreditDigital Founder Daniel Lipinski said, according to reports, “Since we launched, we’ve grown rapidly, so I’m excited to see where this investment will take us. Currently, there isn’t a service like ours in the U.K., so we’re excited to offer a unique finance solution to U.K. businesses to help them grow.”

And the Central Bank of the UAE noted the country’s Indian residents represented a little more than a third – or 34.2 percent – of remittances in 2018’s fourth quarter, The National reported. Central bank data made public through Wam, a state-run news agency, noted that money sent back home during the quarter dropped 7.7 percent from the same period the year before. At the same time, it was noted that beneficiaries in Pakistan received 9.4 percent of UAE remittances, and the Philippines was at 7.2 percent. In addition, the U.S. received 5.9 percent of all remittances, and Egypt was at 5.5 percent.