Let’s be clear from the beginning, it is not MPESA. Being a Kenyan though, I can be forgiven for calling the Mobile Money that will be delivered to Brazilians through WhatsApp mobile money transfer – which is basically Facebook Pay operated within WhatsApp. Isn’t Airtel Money and T-Kash MPESA?
You can still confidently call this Facebook Pay via WhatsApp MPESA because the entire idea was borrowed from MPESA. When Zuckerberg wanted to rollout out a mobile money kind of platform, he made a trip to Kenya and his key focus for the few hours he spent around was to understand how MPESA works. He then went back to US and a few months later he introduced Libra, a push that it later somehow abandoned and refocused on Facebook Pay.
The Facebook Pay via WhatsApp is something Facebook has been trying in India, but for some reason Zuckerberg that that Brazil is a more ready market to launch the mobile money offering; where Brazilians will now be able to receive and send money right from within WhatsApp. The sender of the money will not be charged any transactions fees, but the recipient will be charged a commission of close to 4% (3.99%), of the transfer amount. The users will have to link their WhatsApp accounts to “Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card, with initial local partners including Banco do Brasil, Nubank and Sicredi. Cielo, a payments processor, is also working with WhatsApp to complete transactions”, explained The Verge.
From that paragraph, it is clear to see that if the product will ever arrive in Kenya, then it will give Kenya formidable competition give two factors: the no need for the sender to pay any transaction fees, and the fact that the charges will be a flat rate of 4%. The only reason reason MPESA will be able to beat Facebook Pay via WhatsApp is foremost the wide adoption of MPESA services in Kenya, and the around 2% MPESA charges for every transaction; and that includes both the sending and the withdrawal fees.