Kenya’s Family Bank partners with SimbaPay to launch instant money transfer to China

Kenya’s top commercial bank, Family Bank Ltd. (commonly known as Family Bank) has joined hand with London-based financial technology firm SimbaPay to launch an instant money transfer service from Kenya to China through WeChat. Tencent is the developer of WeChat, Chinese multi-purpose messaging mobile apps currently having over 1 billion monthly active users.

With this effort taken by Nairobi-headquartered Family Bank, over seven million customers and businesses in Kenya will be able access SimbaPay’s international money transfer service to send money to China’s WeChat Pay from (Family Bank’s) PesaPap mobile banking application and USSD service. Non-customers too will enjoy the service via a dedicated PayBill number 261059 on MPESA.

“This is a huge milestone for us and our customers. We are glad to extend, more so to our SME customers, a solution that offers an instant, reliable, traceable and affordable channel to send money to their suppliers and business partners in China,” Godfrey Kamau, COO, Family Bank opined.

China is already Kenya’s large trading partner. The businesses in this East African country imported over US $4 billion worth of goods from China in 2017 alone. The current existing systems for sending money to the recipients based in China take multiple days, alongside the requirement is sometimes there to physically visit the agent for collecting the money. The new service will overcome those hurdles.

The amount sent by Family Bank customers (including non-customers) using the SimbaPay service will instantly be delivered to WeChat Pay recipients in Chinese currency. Before releasing the payment, the service gives the sender a chance to review the transaction and applicable exchange rate.