Facebook to begin Local billings for ads in Kenya via M-Pesa

Facebook has revealed that it is in talks with mobile payment service providers in Kenya to launch local billing on its site. This development will go in line with similar announcements that have been made by the social media giant in South Africa and Nigeria.

Once introduced, users will pay for adverts using Mpesa and Airtel Money among other emerging mobile payment channels.

“These conversations are ongoing, it is not as easy as it may seem as it involves a lot of regulations. However, our aim is to ensure it is as restrictionless as possible,” Nshitsingila said.

According to Facebook’s head of Platform Partnerships for Middle East & Africa Emeka Afigbo, the delay is not due to the technology involved, but regulation and working with local partners to do the integration.

Since the introduction of ads in its platform, advertisers and agencies have been making payments using debit cards, Paypal,  bank direct payments and other virtual credit payment methods in specific countries such as India.

The Facebook team is in the country this week for TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield Africa 2017 – a day-long event aimed at celebrating and uncovering the best innovators, makers and technical entrepreneurs in sub Saharan Africa.

WhatsApp for Business

The firm, which also owns WhatsApp, is set to introduce a specific Whatsapp for business mobile application.

“We’re building and testing new tools via a free Whatsapp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale,” Whatsapp said in a statement last week.

https://techguy.co.ke/whatsapp-roll-whatsapp-business-standalone-app/

Local Partnership with developers

Facebook which currently has at least 2 billion users, has also announced partnering with local developers to customize their services for local users.