Buy bitcoin with PesaLink

What is PesaLink?

PesaLink is Kenya's bank to bank instant transfer network, operated by Integrated Payment Services Limited, a subsidiary of the Kenya Bankers Association, and live since 2017. It moves shillings directly between accounts at participating banks and other institutions connected to the network, reached from mobile and internet banking. It exists so that a bank customer can pay another bank customer without routing the money through a mobile money wallet first.

Speed

Transfers settle in real time on a service that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with Bank of Africa Kenya quoting a maximum of 45 seconds per transaction.

Cost

Each bank publishes its own PesaLink tariff, typically a flat fee that steps up in bands with the amount; Bank of Africa Kenya charges nothing up to 1,000 shillings, rising to 200 shillings at the top band.

Limits

Bank of Africa Kenya caps a single PesaLink transfer at 999,999 shillings, with its tariff bands starting at 10 shillings, and other participating banks publish their own limits.

Speed and cost describe the rail itself. What an exchange adds on top varies by platform and is shown per exchange below.

Using PesaLink in Kenya

PesaLink appears in one country guide on this site, Kenya, where deposits settle in Kenyan shilling (KES). Buyers there fund exchange accounts with M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Credit or debit card, P2P trades with escrow as well, and the country guide ranks the exchanges that take each one.

Buy bitcoin with PesaLink in Kenya