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Agosta Liko has spent 16 years turning Pesapal from a scrappy checkout plug-in into one of East Africa’s busiest payment rails. Now Kenya’s biggest bank wants in. KCB Group Plc plans to acquire a minority stake in Pesapal Ltd., one of East Africa’s largest payment processors, stepping up the lender’s shift from traditional banking into digital rails that move money for merchants and consumers. Terms weren’t disclosed, and the deal requires regulatory approvals, including from the Central Bank of Kenya and competition authorities, according to TechCabal’s report and subsequent market updates.
Pesapal processes card and mobile-money transactions for hotels, airlines, retailers and SMEs across Kenya and neighboring markets, giving KCB exposure to transaction fees and data flows that sit upstream of the loans the bank already provides. Owning part of the infrastructure could help KCB defend payments economics as competition intensifies from mobile-money giants and well-funded fintechs.
Large African banks are taking stakes in payment gateways to lock in merchant acquisition and cross-sell working-capital products inside the checkout experience. For KCB, a Pesapal tie-up could translate into bundled POS devices, settlement accounts, and buy-now-pay-later–style credit for small businesses—offerings that boost deposits and non-interest revenue while keeping rivals off key merchant corridors.
KCB didn’t say how big the holding will be or when it expects to close but it is clear that Kenya's largest lender by assets wants a bigger claim on the country’s fast-growing digital payments market, and it’s choosing equity as well as partnerships to get there. Agosta Liko started Pesapal in 2009 to build local payment rails, drawing on prior software work and company-building experience.
