Kenyan mobile network provider, Safaricom, has launched a rent payment platform via its mobile money tool M-Pesa, which will provide a convenient and cost friendly means of making rental transactions.

Dubbed “Lipa Kodi” – translating ‘pay your rent’ – the platform will charge clients a fee of Sh6 ($0.07) for any transaction equal or below Sh5,000 ($57). The charges however tends to rise as high as Sh220 ($2.5) for transactions between Sh50,000 ($571) to Sh70,000 ($799).

The mobile operator, which recently partnered with the Kenyan government to provide mobile business registration, aims to offer “convenience and cost efficiency to tenants, landlords and housing agents by providing them with a safe and reliable rent payment and collection mode.”

It aims to secure its customer base in the next financial year by attracting landlords, tenants, estate managers and agents to the service, thereby establishing it as the ultimate means for which rental transactions can be made in the East African region.

The rental market in Kenya has been on an upward growth path with an estimated 6.5 million rental households worth a reported Sh17.2 billion ($196 million), and with a rise in the rate of urbanization in the country, there seems to be no downhill on the horizon.

Safaricom is therefore looking to exploit this fast-growing sector by tempting customers with a cash-free, comfortable and on-the-go tool for which payment can be easily effected.