Interswitch Plugs Into Kenya’s Large Sacco Market With New Partnership

Interswitch Group, an Africa-focused technology-driven payments company, has announced a partnership with K-Unity Sacco to provide secure digital payment services to the savings and credit society’s more than 100,000 members.

Sacco’s mobile app, Unicash, has been connected with the electronic payment company’s bulk payment platform Autopay. It has made its Autopay web gateway available to the Sacco.

Interswitch and Sacco sign a digital payment agreement
Interswitch and Sacco sign a digital payment agreement

“Effectively, K-Unity Sacco members can disburse payments to different accounts and mobile wallets. Members who are also SMEs and small businesses will be able to make payments on the web portal,” said Interswitch Group country manager Romana Rajput.

Sacco’s manual checkout procedure has also been automated by the IT business, allowing members to initiate, review, authorize, and monitor payment operations digitally.

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“All Sacco members will thus be able to disburse massive payments through Autopay to different bank accounts and mobile money wallets any day, including weekends and holidays, at any time (24 hours a day, 7 days a week)” said K-Unity CEO Simon Njenga.

A Way Of Beating Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority’s Recent Regulatory Requirement

The move to partner with K-Unity SACCOs is one smart way of removing too much regulatory oversight on the company from the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority, in charge of regulating the operations of saccos in Kenya. The body recently introduced the Sacco Societies (Non-Deposit-Taking Business) Regulations, 2020. 

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The regulations, among other things, demand that anybody operating any form of savings and credit co-operative societies (Saccos) in Kenya, whether physically or digitally, must comply with new regulations and accordingly procure a license by June 30, 2021. 

Interswitch SACCO Kenya Interswitch SACCO Kenya

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer