Safaricom is talking to two leading supermarkets in Kenya about becoming agents for its Lipa Na M-Pesa service, according to Business Daily.

The supermarkets are Tuskys and Nakumatt.

The operator is already piloting the service at three Tuskys stores and is also talking about a similar arrangement with Nakumatt.

The Lipa Na M-Pesa service allows users to pay in stores by sending money from their M-Pesa accounts to special numbers allocated to merchants such as retailers, fuel stations, pharmacies, hotels and airlines.

Safaricom has already signed up the country’s third and fourth largest supermarkets to the service.

The operator charges retailers a one per cent processing fee on the Lipa Na M-Pesa service, which is less than the average three per cent levy that is charged by banks for handling point-of-sale transactions.

A retail service based on M-Pesa is one strategy adopted by Safaricom as it seeks to lessen its dependence on its core P2P money transfer feature, which enjoys high volumes but low margins.