Till Number
Also known as: till, Buy Goods till, Lipa na M-PESA till, merchant number
Full definition
A till number is the merchant identifier for the Buy Goods and Services rail on Lipa na M-PESA. Safaricom issues it to registered businesses after KYC (business KRA PIN, certificate of registration, ID). It is designed for physical retail: shops, restaurants, salons, petrol stations, and any point-of-sale setting where the customer just needs to pay a single amount, not a per-customer bill.
Unlike a paybill, a till does not need an account number field. The customer types the till, the amount and their PIN, and the transaction routes into the merchant wallet. Standard merchant fee on Buy Goods is 0.55 percent of the transaction, capped at KES 200 for tickets above KES 36,363, and the customer pays nothing (fuel stations are the historical exception). Same-day settlement to the linked business bank account is available on request.
At the end of FY26 Safaricom had 3.13 million registered M-PESA merchants across till, paybill and Pochi rails combined (Source: Safaricom PLC Annual Report FY2026).
Worked example
A supermarket displays till 123456. Customer opens the M-PESA app, taps Lipa na M-PESA, chooses Buy Goods, enters 123456, enters 1,500, confirms with PIN. Both sides get an SMS confirmation; the supermarket sees the amount in its till balance instantly.
Verified 2026-09-01. Definitions on paybillke are sourced from Safaricom PLC Annual Report FY2026, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya, the Kenya Revenue Authority, and the primary operator documentation for each product. How we verify. Report a change.