Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) announced the gradual roll-out of PesaLink, its person to person (P2P) money transfer service established to rival Safaricom’s market leading m-Pesa service.

PesaLink, run by KBA subsidiary IPSL, will enable individuals to transfer funds between any two bank accounts from member organisations. Participating banks include Standard Charter, Barclays, NIC Bank, The Co-Operative and Commercial Bank of Africa.

The group said the service is the first time customers can make payments “in real time, around the clock, without having to go through intermediaries”.

Banks involved in the scheme have begun phased service roll-out with some financial institutions still trailing the system ahead of commercial deployment.

KBA CEO Habil Olaka (pictured, right, next to KBA vice-chairman and NIC Bank Group CEO John Gachora, left, and IPSL CEO Jennifer Theuri, centre) said: “The investment by KBA in this product is focused on delivering an advanced solution that can handle bank customer transactions around the clock. In effect, it will facilitate both large transactions, as well as such micropayments that millions of Kenyan settle in cash every day, including paying for groceries at the market, a haircut or bus fare.”

The mobile P2P payment market in the country is currently led by Safaricom’s m-Pesa service, which also offers a range of wallet and money services.

In the latest figures from the country’s Communications Authority, covering the three months to the end of September 2016, m-Pesa’s P2P transfer facility processed KES389 billion ($3.6 billion) worth of transactions. This gives the company an 82 per cent share of Kenya’s mobile P2P money transfer market.