Family Bank joins PSV cashless payment fray
Operators of public service vehicles have more providers of cashless payment systems to choose from after Family Bank joined the race.
The Bank has upgraded its ‘Pesamob’ virtual account which it rolled out in December last year to have features for PSVs.
Family Bank Director Peter Munyiri said the virtual account had been enhanced to include fare payment options that will allow passengers to make cash transfers at no cost.
The growing consumer adoption of mobile phone based financial services inspired the launch of ‘Pesamob’.
From July, all PSVs will be required to operate cashless payment system in line with regulations published by the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry in December last year.
Passengers will be issued with tickets or receipts upon payment according to the regulations that aimed at tapping technology into the matatu industry.
Other tech firms making forays into the transport industry include Safaricom with its ‘M-Safiri’ as well as Google in conjunction with Equity Bank with their ‘BebaPay’.
The Family Bank platform however has an edge over these others as customers will have account to account transfers and access their bank statements online.
“This way, they can monitor the transactions while staying safe in Nairobi, a city where thugs hover and waylay people who have withdrawn money from ATMs,” said Mr Alfred Ng’ang’a, the General Manager at Media Edge Public Relations.
He said there were no charges for account to account transfers as costs for virtual platforms were less than those of ordinary accounts.