Kenya is a famous country in the African continent. Its potential as an emerging market has earned it the status of the biggest economy in South-East Africa.

Despite all this, it still is a developing country, relying heavily on foreign remittances sent by Kenyans working abroad or foreign direct investments from people looking to explore its potential in sectors such as tourism and agriculture.

But whatever your purpose might be, if you are considering sending money or moving some funds into Kenya from abroad, this article has everything to help you out in this regard.

How to send money to Kenya from other countries?

To send money to Kenya, usually you have access to almost all of the methods available to send money to any other country around the world.

However, due to the transaction fees involved and the complexity of the method, not all methods are feasible.

Take for example the case of an international bank-to-bank or international wire transfers. In addition to paying a good amount of fees to avail this service, you also must wait for a couple of days before the payments get cleared and the entire transaction gets completed.

Due to this reason, we have gathered a list of few convenient and cheapest ways to send money to Kenya.

Cheapest ways to send money via international money transfer services in Kenya

No matter what part of the world you are in, if you have access to any branch or online method provided by the following international money transfer services, then sending money to Kenya should not be an issue at all.

These international money transfer services that operate in Kenya include –

• WorldRemit
• Transfast
• Wise (formerly TransferWise)
• Ria
• Xoom
• MoneyGram
• Western Union
• Payoneer

Most of the above services have an app or online web portal to facilitate international online payments to Kenya.

This means that you only need to set up an account with them, transfer the funds to them through a debit card, credit card, or bank transfer, and then initiate the payment procedure by submitting the details of the recipient in Kenya.

Aside from this, Western Union and MoneyGram also offer physical locations to send payments to Kenya from wherever you are.

These processes are usually cheap and take only a few minutes to begin and end the transaction by making the funds instantly and easily available in Kenya.

In Kenya, these funds can either be received directly in the bank account, or for cash pickup, or even through transferring to mobile-wallet accounts.

Bank transfers and cash pickup options in Kenya

International money transfer services such as MoneyGram, Western Union, and Xpress Money, have ongoing partnerships with many banks in Kenya. This allows the easy and legal transfer of huge amounts of funds into Kenya.

Through the multiple branches of these banks, Kenyans can easily receive funds from abroad directly into their bank accounts or in the form of cash collection sent through these international money transfer services.
In addition to partnering with banks, Western Union and some other international money transfer services in Kenya also have numerous agents to facilitate cash pickup options.

Using Mobile-Wallet to receive money in Kenya

M-PESA Global is a popular and widely used mobile wallet service in Kenya and other parts of the African region.
MoneyGram and Western Union both have partnered with M-PESA Global to enable the transfer of funds coming from other countries in Kenya, which go directly into the M-PESA mobile wallet accounts of the recipient.

M-PESA International Money Transfer Service

In addition to the above, Kenyans can also use the M-PESA online transfer option through the M-PESA International Money Transfer Service to receive funds from abroad.

These funds are received on the mobile phone of the recipient which they can later withdraw in the form of cash through any agent location in Kenya.