Safaricom’s M-PESA has made its mark and acquired a central part in our lives as Kenyans. And rightfully so, it is available in the most remote areas of the country. Its operations and procedures are way less cumbersome compared to the traditional financial institutions like banks. In as much as it is possible to live on  M-PESA alone, the banks aren’t going anywhere. It is important for the two platforms to work together. And to some extent, they actually do.

Many banks in the country provide for some sort of Mobile Banking that works well with M-PESA to allow its customers to transfer funds to and from their bank accounts to their M-PESA accounts. Bear in mind that these services need to be activated by your bank so be sure to pay them a visit if these procedures don’t work straight away.

How to send money to your Cooperative Bank account from M-PESA

This is how to deposit funds from M-Pesa to your Co-operative Bank account;

  • Go to M-Pesa menu on your Sim Toolkit, select “Lipa na M-Pesa”Select “Paybill”Select “Enter business no.” and enter “400200” which is Co-operative Bank’s business no and press “OK”Enter the Co-operative Bank account number you are transferring money to under ”Account Number” and press “OK”Enter the amount you want to deposit and press “OK”Enter your M-PESA PIN to authenticate the transaction and press “OK”Double check that everything is in order and press “OK”

You will then receive a confirmation SMS from M-Pesa confirming the transaction. Co-operative Bank will then send you a confirmation SMS shortly and with that, your transaction will be completed.

How to send money from M-Pesa to an Equity Bank Account

The procedure for doing this is similar to the one above and many others. To deposit funds into an Equity Bank Account from M-Pesa:

  • Select Mpesa from your phone’s Safaricom menu. Then choose Lipa na M-PESA.Choose Pay Bill.Under Pay Bill Number, enter 247247 which is the Equity bank paybill number.Enter your Equity bank account number or the account number that you want to transfer money from Mpesa to.Enter the amount to transfer from Mpesa to the Equity bank account.Enter your M-Pesa PIN to authenticate.Verify that you have entered the correct data. It is very important that you do not skip this step.

After confirming that the information you have entered is correct, Press OK to send. You will shortly receive an M-Pesa transaction confirmation SMS from Safaricom and one from Equity Bank confirming the transaction.

How to transfer money from M-PESA to a KCB account

  • Go to M-Pesa menu on your Sim Toolkit, select “Lipa na M-Pesa”Select “Paybill”Select “Enter business no.” and enter “522522” which is KCB Bank’s business no and press “OK”Enter the KCB Bank account number you are transferring money to under ”Account Number” and press “OK”Enter the amount you want to deposit and press “OK”Enter your M-PESA PIN to authenticate the transaction and press “OK”Double check that everything is in order and press “OK”

After confirming that the information you have entered is correct, Press OK to send. You will shortly receive an M-Pesa transaction confirmation SMS from Safaricom and one from KCB Bank confirming the transaction. That simple.

How to transfer funds from M-PESA to a Family Bank Account

  • Go to M-Pesa menu on your Sim Toolkit, select “Lipa na M-Pesa”Select “Paybill”Select “Enter business no.” and enter “222111” which is Family Bank’s business number and press “OK”Enter the Family Bank account number you are transferring money to under ”Account Number” and press “OK”Enter the amount you want to deposit and press “OK”Enter your M-PESA PIN to authenticate the transaction and press “OK”Double check that everything is in order and press “OK”

After confirming that the information you have entered is correct, Press OK to send. You will shortly receive an M-PESA transaction confirmation SMS from Safaricom and one from Family Bank confirming the transaction.

The following table shows a list of the top banks in Kenya and their M-PESA Paybill numbers.