Lipa Karo

What is Lipa Karo?

It is a service that allows payments and collection of school fees through M-PESA. Upon signing up for a Lipa Karo account, a school is issued with a business number to which parents and guardians pay their child’s fees. The service is available to schools which have signed up for an M-PESA Paybill number for Lipa Karo or through paybill accounts operated by our partners e.g. Kenya Commercial Bank, Co-operative Bank and Pesapal.

What steps does one follow while making school fees payments?

On the mobile phone, go to the M-PESA Menu and select Lipa Na M-PESA and then select Pay Bill.
In the “Enter Business Number” field enter your respective school’s business PAYBILL number. This number will be provided by the school.
In the “account number” field, enter the number as provided by the school which may be the student name / registration number as per your schools’ registration specification. NOTE: The school you intend to pay to must be registered to this service.
Enter required amount and input M-PESA PIN.
Confirm the transaction and money will be remitted to the school’s account.

What notification will I get as a confirmation that the fees have been remitted?

Customers will get two SMS notifications:

M-PESA will send the standard Pay Bill confirmation SMS immediately after carrying out the transaction. This notification will confirm that funds have been transferred to the school.
The parent will receive a payment confirmation. i.e. EQ31XY233 Confirmed. KSh15,000.00 sent to Nakuru Boys School for account NBS/SMK/0123/14 on 28/1/14 at 10:10AM. New M-PESA balance is KSh1,000.

The school will also receive a real time payment confirmation SMS message. i.e. EQ31XY003 Confirmed.

You have received KSh15,000.00 from John Wafula Njoroge 072212345 for account NBS/SMK/0123/14 on 28/1/14 at 10:10AM. New M-PESA balance is KSh35,000

Is this service available in all schools?

You may need to contact your school or bursar to confirm whether your respective school has been registered with this M-PESA service and what the business number to pay to is.

If your school is not registered, you may request for registration by asking the school to email Safaricom on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to request for a paybill number for the school.

We will send you the application details and process your application upon receipt of the completed application form.

How do I get the right business number for my school?

You can get in touch with your school bursar to confirm what your school business number is and how the student is identified. Alternatively dial *234# and follow instructions to get your business number. Enter school name as the key word

Who Can I Call for Assistance?

For assistance on the service you can contact;
Safaricom Contact Centre; Dial 100 (from Safaricom mobile phone)
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Business Enquiries:
To sign up for a Pay Bill account for the school
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alternatively, you can call your school for details if you require other details related to the services offered by the school.