Pesapal, one of Kenya’s and Africa’s leading digital payments service providers today announced Supertap, a platform that enables Pesapal mobile users to simplify m-pesa payments at thousands of merchants who use Pesapal Sabi POS machines. Customers can now tap their smartphones on Pesapal Sabi POS machines to complete m-pesa payments and in the process eliminate the lengthy and cumbersome process at checkout counters where they are normally required to key in till numbers or give cashiers their phone numbers to complete their mobile payments.

Pesapal’s Supertap can be used in retail outlets that accept mobile money such as restaurants, supermarkets, kiosks, etc. The way it works is after a cashier has tallied up the sold items, they enter the total billed amount due to be paid on the Pesapal Sabi POS machine and then select the Supertap option. A customer then taps his mobile phone on the machine and enters their m-pesa pin on their smartphone to complete the transaction. Once approved, it will print a customer and merchant receipt to confirm the payment was successful.

In many ways, Pesapal’s Supertap is quite similar to how Apple’s ApplePay mobile payment offering works in that it uses near-field communications or NFC to make payments. However, at this time, Pesapal’s Supertap only works on Android-powered devices. Going forward, Pesapal is working on adding Visa, Mastercard, Bank accounts, and licensed Digital Credit Providers as payment methods on Pesapal Mobile. You can download Pesapal Mobile on Google Play here.