Vodafone Plc has announced that it will, from next month, connect Safaricom's M-Pesa to HomeSend, which will give it a direct link to more than 21 international money transfer platforms.

According to the Business Daily, this move could see subscribers in 35 countries send money to Kenya through the same channel. By connecting to HomeSend, an international remmittance hub and a money transfer portal owned by BICS, M-Pesa users will be able to receive money from 35 countries through their mobile phones without a charge.

Business Daily further reports that Safaricom, which successfully piloted and launched M-Pesa in Kenya, said details of the new deal with other operators, would be made public during the launch expected later this month, adding that the final fee structure on this service has yet to be announced. Safaricom has however made it clear that the cost would be borne by senders of money in the Diaspora.

M-Pesa is the world’s most successful mobile money transfer platform, owned by Vodafone, which has a 40% ownership stake on Safaricom.

The Business Daily reports that Vodafone is the biggest beneficiary of M-Pesa, having earned KES 1.6 billion in the past four years which represents 7% of money transfer revenues from Safaricom. In the financial year that ended in March 2012,  Safaricom paid VSSL (Vodafone Sales and Services Limited)   KES 1.4 billion in licence fees from KES 189 million paid in 2009. By the end of March this year, the cumulative worth of M-Pesa transactions stood at KES 828 billion which is an average of KES 17 billion a month.