Taxi hailing company Taxify has announced that Kenyan riders will have an in-app option to natively pay for their rides through mobile money, primarily M-Pesa. The company becomes the first global taxi company to provide this option to riders.

Safaricom-backed hailing app LittleCab also offers in app payment through mobile money.

"Mobile payment commerce transactions were valued at KES 447.4 Billion in the third quarter of 2016, showing just how deeply the Kenyan economy is engrained into mobile money payments (Data from CAK). To give our users a better experience and to make it easier to pay for trips, we have integrated M-Pesa into the Taxify application," stated Taxify.

"We are always on the lookout on how to intensely localise the experience of our application across the cities we operate in. We take time to learn what works for each city and take extra steps to integrate a city's culture into how the application works. Taxify is a lifestyle application and we are constantly seeking ways to incorporate it more easily into our users' lives," said Alex Mwaura, City Manager, Nairobi.

The company has noticed an increase in the use of mobile money in making payments for goods and services, and has become the preferred means of payment within the cities they operate in.

A statement issued by Taxify said that the payment will go to Taxify first and then the company will remit payments to the drivers.

However, this cannot prevent customers from utilising the cash payment option and paying drivers directly.

Taxify said that the feature is live in their iOS application and will be rolled out soon in their Android application.

Payment for rides has been an ongoing issue in this region, since low penetration impacted the default credit card payment option.

Uber recently partnered with Visa to ensure every Visa-labelled card could be used to make trip payments.