Safaricom Launches M-pesa Tap-to-Pay on Pesapal POS

In Short

• Safaricom has launched M-PESA Tap-to-Pay in Kenya.
• It uses NFC, which is the same short range “tap” tech used in contactless card payments.
• Compatible Pesapal payment terminals, including the N950S and some N950u models, can accept it without extra setup.

What Happened

Safaricom has rolled out M-PESA Tap-to-Pay, a contactless payment feature that lets customers pay by tapping a phone on a merchant terminal. M-PESA Tap-to-Pay relies on NFC, which allows two devices to exchange payment details when held a few centimeters apart.

A key part of the launch is merchant readiness. Safaricom says compatible terminals from Pesapal, including the N950S and selected N950u models, can accept the payments without merchants buying new devices or going through additional configuration.

This positions Tap-to-Pay as a software-led upgrade for part of the existing POS base. POS means point of sale, the card machine used at checkout. For merchants, the promise is faster checkout and fewer steps compared to some QR flows, especially in busy retail settings.

Why It Matters

Contactless payments are already familiar to many consumers through tap cards and mobile wallets. Bringing similar “tap” behavior to M-PESA could make in-store mobile money payments feel closer to card payments, which may help adoption in supermarkets, restaurants, and other high throughput merchants.

For operators and payment providers, the detail that matters is distribution. If a large number of existing terminals can support M-PESA Tap-to-Pay, rollout could scale faster than hardware swap cycles. It also puts more attention on terminal compatibility, merchant onboarding, and reliability, which are often the real bottlenecks in everyday payments.

For Kenyan merchants, the move adds another acceptance option alongside card and QR payments. The next question will be coverage, which terminal models qualify, and how quickly merchants see customer demand for tap-based M-PESA checkout.