During the Huawei Cloud & AI Forum at the recently concluded online AfricaCom 2020 event, part of the Africa Tech Festival that run from November 9^th to 13th. Lulu noted the aggregated use of Huawei cloud in improving the uptime and reliability of Afrishop.

Having launched its portal supported by Huawei Cloud to provide convenient online shopping, affordable logistics, and courier services. Afrishop aims at creating a more convenient and affordable delivery service for consumers looking for quality goods from China.

The Afrishop taste of uptime on Huawei cloud

In its launch and development stages, Afrishop got support from Huawei Cloud Infrastructure and Huawei AppGallery –– the app store on non-Google management services (GMS) Huawei smartphones.

“We are available on Android and the Apple app store, but our competitive advantage has been that we are available on the Huawei AppGallery for Huawei phones which are widely used in Africa, the partnership with Huawei to push our app in the app store really helped us, and we saw a big uptick in downloads.”

Furthermore, Lulu noted that for a long time, there has been a need for a good supply-chain management system for African consumers. In a bid to address the challenge, Afrishop targets to provide convenience and affordable last-mile delivery right to the customer’s doorstep. 

 “Our main services are online shopping and supply chain management, and our solution is faster, easier, and more convenient than other platforms. Our customers get access both through our app and website, this is because apps don’t have a big uptake in several African regions yet.”

Additionally, Afrishop registered over 10,000 downloads in its first week by leveraging the Huawei cloud support system and has since continued to grow over the past 9 months. So far, the platform is available in Zambia, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and Angola as noted by Lulu.

Annually, the Huawei Cloud & AI Forum is hosted for the African ICT industry. This year, the forum run under the theme “New Value Together” and with notable case studies from Afrishop, the brand’s cloud services continue to present an opportunity for the growth of Africa’s eCommerce ecosystem.

For eCommerce platforms like Afrishop, the reliability of cloud computing providers like Huawei cloud presents an opportunity to grow. By this standard, providers like Jumia, Kilimall, Gearbest continue to be most preferred by customers across Africa.

However, the most interesting bit of Paypal is the ability to budget for your money with a wallet dashboard on top of hiding your actual Bank card from any merchant you’re paying to.

Popularly, Paypal helps you make secure payments and shop Items on the world’s most popular eCommerce portals like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, BhPhoto, Adorama, among many others, and have your products delivered to your registered address.

On a lucky patch, In case you want your money refunded, Paypal allows you to reverse transactions and have your sent money returned to your account.

For failed transactions on platforms like eBay, your money is refunded directly to your Paypal dashboard. Just another reason why you’d need to have your own PayPal account.

How to create a PayPal Account in Kenya

• Visit www.Paypal.com/ke
• Click Sign up to register for an account
• Enter Your Email, Password and required Phone Number
• Select your Address and ZIP Code
• Done: Your Paypal account will be created

Once you register for a PayPal account, be sure to check your Email Inbox to verify your account in order to get full access to all Paypal features like its Wallet feature. Once verified, you will be able to use your PayPal account anywhere.

How to deposit to your PayPal Wallet

Since Kenya is supported by PayPal, Your registered account gets full access to the Wallet feature which allows you to deposit funds directly to your dashboard, and choose a specific amount whenever you wish to send or make a payment.

To deposit, simply link you Bank debit card from the Cards section and then deposit any amount you wish to from your Paypal cash section. However, you can only deposit to your wallet if you have verified your Phone number for full features.

Either way, if you have an MPESA account, then depositing to your PayPal account just got easier. To deposit from MPESA, simply visit the custom Mpesa dashboard at Paypal-mobilemoney.com to link your number and deposit funds directly to your account.

Deposit Via MPESA:

• Visit paypal-mobilemoney.com
• Register for an account with your Mpesa Account Phone Number
• Wait for a 4-digit code to Verify your Mpesa number
• Then, Deposit funds by clicking Top Up on your new dashboard
• Enter amount to deposit in USD and click calculate to get KES equivalent
• Then go to your MPESA menu and click ‘Lipa Na pesa’ Pay Bill
• Enter Business number 800088
• Enter your MPESA number as account number to confirm
• Then, Enter your PIN Code and tap Send
• Once finished, your balance will reflect on you PayPal Wallet dashboard in USD
• Done:

Withdrawing from Paypal with MPESA in Kenya

• Visit Paypal-mobilemoney.com
• Login to your created Mpesa dashboard
• Click Withdraw to withdraw funds from your Linked PayPal account
• Enter Amount you wish to withdraw from your Paypal (In USD)
• You will be redirected to a page with the amount you’ll receive in KES
• Confirm amount and hit the complete Withdraw button
• You will receive the money on your Mpesa Account through a notification message
• Done:

The MPESA Link to Paypal once launched years ago as a model to allow customers to withdraw funds from Paypal without necessarily using Bank wire or registered debit cards since higher charges are attached as compared to using MPESA.

Hence, with the paypal-mobilemoney.com MPESA owned Portal, you can easily use, deposit, and withdraw funds from your Paypal account securely. Nonetheless, MPESA is the most convenient and cheaper method you can use to always withdraw or deposit to your Paypal Wallet.

Just like MTN Momo Pay, Airtel Money Pay is free to use and doesn’t carry any Mobile money charges to make payments. However, a customer must have enough money left on his account to make a payment with the service.

To use the service, a customer visits a registered merchant, and buy goods or a service to pay with Airtel Pay by entering the Merchant’s unique code after dialing the *185*9# service code.

However, non-registered merchants can’t receive money with the service, meaning a customer can only pay with cash or the merchant’s available payment methods. Registered merchants can be recognized with their Merchant code displayed at the point of sale.

Paying for Goods with Airtel Money Pay

• Dial *185*9# 
• Or *185#, then Option 9 (Airtel Money Pay)
• Enter Merchant Code to Pay to
• Enter Amount to Pay
• Confirm Payment with Your PIN code
• Done: The Merchant will receive your Payment

With the My Airtel App:

• Open the My Airtel App
• Locate the QR code scanner
• Scan the merchant QR code to receive his payment code
• Enter Amount to Pay
• Then confirm payment with your Airtel Money PIN
• Done: The Merchant will be notified with your Payment

“We are delighted to partner with Visa in exploring products that will support both our customers and Lipa Na MPESA merchants” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndewa said during the Mpesa * Visa Partnership reveal

With over 24.9 Million customers on the Mpesa network pulling off transactions on a daily, Visa’s 61million merchant networks worldwide are now able to accept payments directly from Mpesa to the Visa network through a Virtual card accessible from the Mpesa Menu.

With the Mpesa Visa card, a customer is able to complete an Amazon or eBay transaction by simply entering the Mpesa virtual card details. In fact, the created card works as a Visa card for payments except for the fact that it’s not bank-issued, but tailored for your Mpesa mobile money account.

According to the Visa President of Africa, the Mpesa Visa card brings to play a new way to make fast and secure payments both online and at local VISA stores on top of carrying low transaction fees to use the card.

Safaricom and MPESA have already transformed millions of everyday lives throughout Africa and put Kenya on the map as a global leader in mobile money. We are thrilled to work together on the next stage of their journey, bringing safe and convenient financial services to all.”

Andrew Torre, President of Visa Central Europe, Middle East and Africa said

At the moment, the Mpesa Visa card is still in its early stages and it can be accessed from the Mpesa my account menu. Either way, the card creates a virtual Interface for your account and doesn’t require any physical Visa card since its virtually created.

For card details, they are sent through an Mpesa SMS message, and you can then perform transactions from multiple online stores to pay for any service that accepts VISA as a payment option. In a nutshell, this is one of the best Mpesa services you need to give a try.