Over 200,000 Nairobi residents who use metered water supplied by the Nairobi Water Company (NWC) can now pay for it through Safaricom’s M-PESA service. This follows the signing of a partnership agreement between Safaricom and NWC, which will allow Nairobi residents to pay their water bills via the M-PESA service.  Until now, customers have been settling their bills at over 18 NWC outlets across Nairobi, resulting in long queues, especially at peak times. The partnership mirrors past deals between M-PESA and utility companies like Kenya Power Lighting Company to ease settlement of bills.  Speaking on the launch of the service, Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Michael Joseph said the company was committed to offering business solutions that make it easier for its partners to serve their customers effectively and efficiently.

“In our constant quest to come up with innovative services that meet our customers’ and business partners’ requirements, we will continuously enter into strategic partnerships with key service providers such as NWC. We are excited about this partnership and the advantages it gives our customers. This is also in line with our strategy of increasing the utility of the mobile phone for our customers,” said  Joseph. 

M-PESA, which had over 9.4 million users as at March 31, has grown beyond its primary role of money transfer and has introduced value added services such as the PayBill and Bulk Payment functionalities. More than 250 companies have already signed up for the PayBill service which enables several organizations to accept client payments through M-PESA. 

Said Francis Mugo, Managing Director, NWC: “We are happy to be part of this money transfer revolution brought by M-PESA service. We wish to assure our customers that this is the easiest and fastest way to sort out their water bill as they are now able to do the transaction from the comfort of their living rooms. Our joining this league is aimed at further improving service delivery. I take this opportunity to congratulate Safaricom for the M-PESA innovation as it is surely shaping our way of life.”

Registered M-PESA customers are required to select “Pay Bill” from the M-PESA menu; enter the NWC business number 444400 and full account number and then follow the instructions as guided by the menu to complete the transaction. Upon payment, customers will receive a confirmation from M-PESA immediately and the account will be updated within 48 hours. To query one’s outstanding bill, all one needs to do is to send an SMS with full account number to the NWC short code 5571.