It is that time of the month when your rent is due (or almost) and you are rushing to make it to the bank. You do not fully trust the agent's M-Pesa account and the collecting agent is conveniently elusive, even on a Sunday. Thanks to a piece of software called Manyatta rent, paying your rent will be a few dials away. The software has been tailored to serve the real estate market, specifically the management of rent payment. It offers a processing solution that allows tenants to easily pay for their rent using mobile money transfer systems.

Manyatta Rent boasts of being the first real estate management software that enables professional estate agents and landlords to cut operational costs. It incorporates use of a tenant database that records tenant payments, balances and even indicates which rooms are vacant. The software is set to help agents them save time and effectively manage their rental property portfolio. The agent sends alerts for rent collection, or rent increase and can even do reconciliation for the property owner. So how does the software work?

For the landlord, it follows these four steps:

1. They acquire a copy of the Manyatta Rent software.
2. Landlord gets their bank’s rent pay bill number from Manyatta Rent.
3. The software will assign each tenant a unique unit code.
4. Manyatta Rent system will inform all tenants on how to make rent payment via M-PESA.

*All payments go directly to agent’s bank account.

For the tenant, it follows these four easy steps:

1. The tenant pays their rent via bank’s M-PESA pay bill number.
2. The bank receives the payment and credits the agent’s account.
3. The proprietor’s server receives information on the payment made. This is followed by the sending of the SMS receipt to tenant.
4. Agent can view all rent payments from the Manyatta Rent software.

PesaTalk.com Sat down and hat a chat with Steve Ng'ethe, one of the co-founders of Manyatta Rent, here's what he had to say.

PT: When was the company started and what led to its incorporation?

SN: It was incorporated in 2010. We have been providing EMS software for two years and have been taking adaptive measures to make product work.

PT: How different is it from any other mobile money transfer platform?

SN: The platform makes it more convenient for the agent to receive multiple payments without a daily cap. It also makes tracking payments easier since the money is sent from any of the money transfer platforms straight to the bank, as opposed to peer-to-peer transfer. Tenants do not have to leave their homes or queue in banks to make their rent payments. Accounting functions such as reconciliation make it easier for agents to calculate their net gains since they can also input their expenses.

PT: What are the transaction costs and how long does it take for it to be completed?

SN: A transaction fee ranging from KES 50 – KES 100 is applicable for processing each tenant’s transaction. As for the time period, it is essentially a one-minute job. You send money via your mobile money transfer platform and receive the money withdrawal notice first as with any ordinary withdrawal. The rent receipt is sent a few seconds later via SMS confirming rent payment and balance payable if any.

The aim of the Manyatta Rent is to make the rent payment process simpler. It comes in to the market at a time when payment of utility bills, i.e. water and electricity, has also been made convenient for Kenyans.