An inter-bank partnership in Kenya, led by Visa has enabled consumers to send money to each other domestically without paying transaction fees using card-less payment solution mVisa.

Visa announced last week that consumers can now use mVisa to send money directly from their bank to a recipient's bank account regardless of whether they use a smart phone or feature phone.

According to CIO, the partnership, offering free person-to-person (P2P) transactions, includes nine Kenyan banks that either enable mVisa on their mobile banking applications and/or have acquired merchants to be able to accept mVisa.

The nine banks include; Barclays Bank, Cooperative Bank, Ecobank, Family Bank, KCB Bank, National Bank of Kenya, NIC Bank, Prime Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. Two banks, Diamond Trust Bank and Stanbic are expected to go live with mVisa.

"This is a significant move especially when you consider how much Kenyans spend on transaction fees for mobile money transfers every year. With 38.9 million active mobile phone subscriptions and Ksh. 515.9 billion in person-to-person money transfers within the last quarter of 2016, mobile money payments have become an integral part of Kenyans' lives," says Andrew Torre, group country manager for visa Sub-Saharan Africa.

"There is a strong sense of community here with people often sending funds to family, friends and even strangers in times of need, celebration or crisis. We hope to enhance this by eliminating barriers such as transaction costs, while giving customers a convenient, secure and affordable experience. We are excited to continue to build momentum around mVisa to digitize payments with a scalable and interoperable solution that is not limited by the mobile network, bank, or type of handset used." Adds Torre.