Vodacom, which relaunched M-Pesa in South Africa this summer, is talking to local companies — both big and small —about using the money service for paying salaries to their workers, according to BD Live.

In addition, some businesses can introduce M-Pesa for handling point-of-sale transactions, so reducing the amount of cash they handle on their premises.

Both are examples of implementing additional functionality to M-Pesa’s core money transfer service.

Other potential uses for M-Pesa include purchasing flight tickets, topping up prepaid electricity and e-commerce transactions in online stores. A cross-border mobile money service may also be on the cards.

M-Pesa initially struggled to make an impresssion in South Africa, unlike other territories where the same operator has had greater success with it.

However, M-Pesa appears to have fared better since a summer relaunch. It now has 650,000 customers and is targeting 10 million in the next five years.