Payments glossary
Mobile money
Mobile money is a store of value tied to a mobile number - M-Pesa is the best-known example - that lets people deposit, send and spend money from a phone without a bank account. Across much of Africa it is the default way to pay, and an essential acceptance method in those markets.
How mobile money works
A mobile money account lives against a SIM and mobile number rather than a bank. Customers load and withdraw cash through agent networks - the corner shop doubles as the branch - and pay through an app or USSD menu, which means the service works on feature phones as well as smartphones. M-Pesa, operated by Safaricom in Kenya and by Vodacom in several other African markets, is the model the category is built on: person-to-person transfers first, then merchant payments, bills and savings layered on top.
How paying a merchant with mobile money differs from cards
At checkout, mobile money is a push approval rather than a card entry: the customer receives a prompt on their phone and confirms with their PIN. The merchant never handles an account number, confirmation is real time, and disputes are handled by the mobile money operator rather than a card scheme - so there is no chargeback mechanism to manage. The flip side is that each market has its own dominant operator, so acceptance has to be arranged rail by rail.
Mobile money on LekkaPay
M-Pesa acceptance is live on LekkaPay, letting merchants take mobile money payments alongside cards, Instant EFT and voucher payments through one integration.
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