Connect your M-Pesa till or paybill to BlueDuka
Done once. Then M-Pesa payments confirm themselves at the checkout, you can send customers a PIN prompt, and debt payments are applied by themselves. The money always goes straight to your own account.
What changes once it is connected
| Before connecting | After connecting | |
|---|---|---|
| Taking a payment | Check your phone for Safaricom's message, then type the code | The payment appears at the checkout by itself |
| PIN prompt to the customer | Not available | Send it for the exact amount; the sale completes when they pay |
| Debt payments | Recorded by hand | A customer's payment from their own number goes against their debt |
| Fake or reused messages | A code can't be used twice in BlueDuka | Payments come straight from Safaricom, so a fake message can't pass |
Before you start
- BlueDuka on the Business plan or above (or the 14-day free trial)
- A Business Till (Buy Goods) or Paybill. Pochi la Biashara and personal Send Money numbers can't be connected to any system
- Access to the phone of your M-PESA business portal administrator, for Safaricom's one-time code
- An email address for your Daraja account
- Usually one to three weeks for the till, and a few days for Safaricom's Daraja approval. You can sell on BlueDuka meanwhile
Documents Safaricom asks for
Take these to the Safaricom shop. Requirements change, so ask the shop for their current list.
- A business in your own name (sole proprietor): your national ID and KRA PIN, and usually a business permit
- A registered business or company: the certificate of registration or incorporation, the KRA PIN, the IDs of the owners or directors (and the CR12 for a company), and usually a business permit
- Often a bank letter or a cancelled cheque for the account the money is settled to
Step by step
Get a Business Till or Paybill from Safaricom
Go to a Safaricom shop, or apply online on M-PESA for Business, and ask for Lipa na M-PESA Buy Goods (a till) or a Paybill.
Safaricom gives you a Store number (SN, your head office number) and a Till number, or a Paybill number, and a login for the M-PESA business portal for your administrator. This often takes one to three weeks.
Open a free Daraja account
Daraja is Safaricom's site for connecting software like BlueDuka to M-Pesa. Sign up at developer.safaricom.co.ke with your email and confirm it.
Go Live with your till or paybill
In Daraja, click Go Live and choose Till (Buy Goods) or Paybill.
Enter your Store number (for a till) or your Paybill number, your business name, and the username of your M-PESA business portal administrator. Safaricom sends a one-time code to the administrator's phone: enter it.
Choose M-PESA Express (Lipa na M-PESA Online) and C2B.
Copy your keys
In Daraja, open My Apps and then your new live app. Copy the Consumer Key and the Consumer Secret.
Safaricom emails the Passkey to your administrator after Go Live. If it does not arrive, write to apisupport@safaricom.co.ke.
Paste them into BlueDuka
In BlueDuka, open Integrations, then M-Pesa till / paybill, then Own Daraja app, and choose Live.
For a till choose Till (Buy Goods) and enter the Store number and the Till number. For a paybill enter the Paybill number.
Paste the Consumer Key, Consumer Secret and Passkey, switch M-Pesa on and press Save. BlueDuka then registers your till with Safaricom by itself.
Test it with KES 10
Make a KES 10 sale, choose M-Pesa and then Ask the customer to pay, and pay from your own phone. The sale completes by itself within seconds.
Then send money to the till from another phone and use Find the payment in my till at the checkout.
Keep the Consumer Key, Consumer Secret and Passkey private. Paste them only into BlueDuka's Integrations page; never send them on WhatsApp or by email. BlueDuka keeps them encrypted. Only the shop owner can see and change Integrations.
While you wait for Safaricom
Sell on BlueDuka as normal. When a customer pays by M-Pesa, check the money arrived on your phone, choose M-Pesa at the checkout and type the code from the message. Nothing needs to change when your till is connected later.
If something goes wrong
“Already registered” when BlueDuka connects your till
Safaricom allows one connection per till. If another system was connected before, ask Daraja support (apisupport@safaricom.co.ke) to clear it, then press Reconnect in Integrations.
“Invalid credentials” or nothing happens
The keys must come from the live app, not the sandbox (test) app, and all three must belong to the same till or paybill. Copy them again from Daraja, without spaces.
The one-time code went to the wrong phone
It goes to the administrator registered on the M-PESA business portal. Change the administrator through Safaricom first.
I use Pochi la Biashara or my personal number
These cannot be connected to any system. Ask Safaricom for a Business Till (Buy Goods) or a Paybill.
Need help?
Call or WhatsApp BlueDuka on +254 727 177 155, Monday to Saturday. Have your till or paybill number ready, but never share your keys or your M-Pesa PIN with anyone, including us.