If you are a small business owner or an entrepreneur in Kenya, you probably have heard of Pochi la Biashara and Lipa na M-Pesa.
These two Safaricom services are designed to help businesses receive payments seamlessly while keeping finances organised.
But what exactly are they? How do they work?
Let us break down the key features, benefits, and differences between Pochi la Biashara and Lipa na M-Pesa.
Pochi La Biashara
It is a product that allows business owners such as food vendors, small kiosk owners, boda-boda operators, secondhand clothes dealers among others to receive and separate business funds from personal funds on their M-PESA line.
Pochi la Biashara is available to Safaricom customers who are already registered to M-PESA on their SIM card.
It was launched in 2020.
Benefits of Pochi la Biashara
- Simple sign-up process where no paperwork is involved.
- Business owners will be able to separate their business funds and personal funds allowing them to use business transactions to plan financially.
- Customers can withdraw funds from an agent directly from a Pochi la Biashara account without moving the funds to M-PESA account.
- Pochi customers can use Lipa Na Pochi option to pay to business account PayBill or Buy Goods using funds in their Pochi account.
- Payment once received cannot be reversed without the approval of the business owner.
- Business owners can now sell airtime from the funds collected in their Pochi wallet and earn a 5% commission on the value sold.
- Access to Mini statements showing the latest top transactions.
- Easily accessible questions and answer section on the product, under Know More About the Service on USSD
Features that are available on Pochi la Biashara Menu are:
- Send Money
- Sell Airtime
- Make payments to other businesses.
- Withdraw Cash (at an Agent directly from Pochi account)
- Move money from Pochi account to M-PESA and vice versa.
- Pochi Account Management
- Know more about Pochi.
Currently opt-in is available only via USSD option *334# through the following procedure:
- Using their M-PESA registered line they will dial *334#
- Select Pochi La Biashara
- Select Join Pochi and Accept Terms and Conditions
- Select your Business Category from the menu provided.
It is a cashless payment service that allows customers to make payments for goods and services securely and conveniently from any customer or any other business across the country.
Launched in 2012, the service particularly caters to businesses by providing higher transaction and account limits, more secure payments, and easy integration with business systems and other financial services.
To open an account, Safaricom has put in place Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for individuals, sole proprietors, limited liability companies, employment agencies, foreign companies, and real estate businesses.
The rush by businesses in taking up the service has been to meet the growing uptake of Lipa Na M-PESA amongst Kenyans, with customers using the service increasing by 1 million since January 2020 to more than 6 million today.
How it works
Customers use the Pay Bill or Buy Goods and Services options in the M-Pesa menu to make payments with these payments going directly to the merchant’s M-Pesa account.
Key features
Once you tap Lipa na M-Pesa on your device, you will find the following three options on the menu.
1-Pay bill which is used for payments to businesses, such as utility bills, school fees, or government services.
2-Buy goods and services which is used for everyday purchases at shops, supermarkets, and restaurants.
3-Pochi la Biashara, is a service for small businesses to receive payments without mixing business and personal funds.
Benefits
One of the greatest benefits of using this service is convenience, in that you do not need to carry cash as payments since it can be made anytime from your phone.
There is also reduced risk of theft and fraud.
You, however, need not share your secret pin number with a third party.
Other benefits that you can be guaranteed by using it are instant transactions as payments are reflected immediately and also helps in ensuring good record keeping as transaction messages act as proof of payment.
Charges
There are no customer charges for payments made using Lipa na M-PESA Buy Goods except for payments made at fuel stations.
Payment to another Buy Goods till attracts 0.25 per cent charges capped at Sh200.
The business owner will be charged a maximum of 0.5 per cent and not more than Sh200 per transaction for money collected on the till.
Customer payments of Sh200 and below are FREE.
If you accidentally send money to the wrong pay bill or till number, you can request a reversal through Safaricom customer care.
