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Kenyan travel-booking startup BuuPass is partnering with Nairobi-based digital wallet provider SafariBucks to introduce cross-border payment capabilities to its travel platform as the mobility company expands beyond bus ticketing into regional and corporate travel.
The partnership will enable travellers to use SafariBucks wallets to pay for BuuPass buses, flights and ground transfers, with transactions processed through local payment rails. The integration is designed to reduce the payment difficulties travellers often face when moving between African countries, particularly around currency conversion, local payment methods and access to cash.
SafariBucks Adds Cross-Border Payment Layer
Under the arrangement, travellers can fund a SafariBucks wallet and use it to pay for BuuPass travel services across supported markets.
For an international visitor arriving in Kenya, for example, the wallet can be funded before the trip and used after arrival without requiring the traveller to immediately obtain a local SIM card or rely entirely on cash.
Travellers moving between African countries can similarly hold funds in their home currency and use the wallet through local payment rails after crossing borders.
SafariBucks currently presents its service as a multi-currency wallet supporting Kenyan shillings, Ugandan shillings, Tanzanian shillings, US dollars and euros, with operations spanning Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia.
The companies are targeting a problem that has persisted across Africa’s fragmented payments landscape: payment methods that work smoothly within one country do not always transfer easily across borders.
Corporate Travel Gets New Payment Infrastructure
The partnership also extends into BuuPass’ corporate travel business through Gavanpass, the platform launched by the company in April 2026.
Gavanpass allows companies to book and manage flights, hotels, buses, ground transfers and group travel, while providing features such as approval workflows and real-time spending visibility.
SafariBucks’ Spend Management product will be integrated into the platform, allowing businesses to fund employee travel and manage expenditure across multiple currencies.
Under the arrangement, SafariBucks handles the cross-border payment component while BuuPass continues to provide the underlying travel inventory.
The model is aimed at reducing the administrative burden associated with managing travel expenditure across countries, particularly for companies whose employees regularly move around East Africa.
Tackling Cash, FX and Border Friction
SafariBucks co-founder and CEO Ali Hassan said the partnership is designed to address several practical problems faced by travellers moving across East African borders.
“Moving across East Africa has meant carrying cash you cannot spend everywhere, hunting for a SIM card at the border, or paying steep informal exchange fees,” Hassan said.
He said the integration is intended to remove that friction for both individual travellers and corporate finance teams managing expenditure across different currencies.
The SafariBucks platform also promotes digital transaction records and automated reconciliation for business users, addressing another challenge associated with cash-heavy travel expenses.
BuuPass Moves Beyond Bus Ticketing
The partnership comes as BuuPass broadens its business beyond its original focus on bus-ticket booking.
In April, the company launched Gavanpass as a dedicated corporate travel platform, expanding its offering to include multiple categories of travel services.
BuuPass has also expanded its African footprint through its 2024 acquisition of QuickBus, a bus-ticketing platform with operations and relationships in Nigeria and South Africa.
The acquisition brought QuickBus’ integrations and distribution relationships into BuuPass’ wider platform.
The company said it sold more than 30 million tickets and processed over $100 million in travel transactions during 2025, underscoring the scale of the travel infrastructure it is seeking to build.
Yango Investment Supports Regional Expansion
BuuPass’ latest move follows an investment from Yango Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Yango Group.
The funding, announced about a year before the SafariBucks partnership, was aimed at helping BuuPass expand its infrastructure and deepen its presence across African markets.
The company’s expansion reflects a broader shift among African travel-tech companies from individual ticketing products towards integrated platforms combining transportation, accommodation, corporate travel and payments.
AFCON 2027 Provides Major Test Case
The two companies are also positioning their partnership around the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, which will be jointly hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The tournament is expected to create substantial cross-border movement as supporters travel between the three host countries.
For BuuPass, that creates an opportunity to use its transportation-booking infrastructure to connect travellers with buses, flights and transfers. SafariBucks, meanwhile, plans to provide the payment layer for those journeys.
The scale of previous AFCON tournaments illustrates the potential demand. The 2023 edition in Côte d’Ivoire attracted more than one million spectators, while ticket-sale revenue increased significantly compared with the preceding tournament in Cameroon.
Cross-Border Payments Become Strategic
The BuuPass-SafariBucks partnership arrives as African payment infrastructure continues to move towards greater regional interoperability.
The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), for example, is designed to facilitate instant cross-border payments in African currencies and reduce the need to route transactions through hard currencies.
PAPSS said in September 2026 that its network had expanded to more than 30 African countries, connecting national and regional central banks, commercial banks and payment service providers.
Against this backdrop, BuuPass and SafariBucks are targeting a more specific layer of the problem: making payments work smoothly for people and businesses physically moving across African borders.
The partnership therefore places payment infrastructure alongside travel inventory as a core component of the continent’s emerging digital travel economy, with corporate travel, tourism and the 2027 AFCON providing immediate use cases for the new cross-border payment model.
