BuuPass and SafariBucks Team Up to End Africa's Border Payment Pain
Cross-border travel in Africa has long meant carrying cash that does not work everywhere, hunting for a SIM card at the border, or swallowing steep informal exchange fees. BuuPass, the Kenyan travel-booking startup that has spent eight years building a distribution layer for African travel, is now attacking the payments half of that problem. Through a partnership with Nairobi-based digital wallet SafariBucks, travellers can pay for BuuPass buses, flights and transfers across markets without switching currencies or payment methods, with transactions settled through local rails. The move matters because it shifts the company beyond ticketing into regional and corporate travel, and it lands just as BuuPass positions itself for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
What the deal actually does
SafariBucks will handle the cross-border payment layer while BuuPass handles the underlying travel inventory. Travellers can load and activate a SafariBucks wallet before arriving and use it to book BuuPass buses, flights and transfers. A tourist moving between African countries can load the wallet in their home currency and use it through local payment rails after crossing a border, while local travellers can pay through methods they already use. SafariBucks' Spend Management product will also integrate with Gavanpass, BuuPass' corporate travel platform, allowing companies to fund and manage tax reporting for employee travel across multiple currencies.
Why payments are the harder half
BuuPass co-founder and co-CEO Sonia Kabra frames the partnership as closing a gap customers kept naming. "We have spent eight years building the distribution layer for African travel, and what customers keep telling us is that payments, not bookings, are the harder half of the problem," she said. SafariBucks co-founder and CEO Ali Hassan described the friction the two companies are targeting: carrying cash you cannot spend everywhere, hunting for a SIM card at the border, or paying steep informal exchange fees. For a finance team tracking travel spend across three currencies, consolidating payments into one layer is a practical operational win, not just a convenience.
The corporate travel bet and AFCON runway
The partnership comes as BuuPass expands into corporate travel. In April 2026 it launched Gavanpass, a platform for booking flights, hotels, buses, ground transfers and group travel, with approval workflows and real-time spend tracking. Kabra said corporate travel is where the integration lands first and is the fastest-growing part of the business today. Both companies are also positioning for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, with SafariBucks planning to handle payments while BuuPass handles movement between host cities and match venues. The 34th edition, held in Côte d'Ivoire in 2023, drew more than 1 million spectators and generated an 800% increase in ticket sales revenue compared with the previous edition in Cameroon, giving the partners a large-scale test of their cross-border infrastructure.
The bigger picture: distribution plus rails
BuuPass launched in 2016 and now operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa with over 150 transport operators across bus, train and flight verticals. It is integrated with financial and mobile money platforms including M-PESA, MTN MoMo, First National Bank and Vodapay, and says it sold over 30 million tickets and processed more than $100 million in travel transactions in 2025. In 2024 it acquired QuickBus, a bus ticketing platform operating in Nigeria and South Africa, in a cash-and-stock deal, and a year ago it secured an undisclosed investment from Yango Ventures. The SafariBucks tie-up adds a cross-border payment layer to that distribution base, which is the part that could make regional travel feel genuinely seamless.
Key Takeaways
- BuuPass and SafariBucks are adding cross-border payments to BuuPass buses, flights and transfers, settled through local payment rails.
- SafariBucks' Spend Management product will integrate with Gavanpass, BuuPass' corporate travel platform, for multi-currency employee travel funding and tax reporting.
- BuuPass says it sold over 30 million tickets and processed more than $100 million in travel transactions in 2025, operating in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa.
- Both companies are positioning for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, co-hosted by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, as a large-scale test of cross-border travel and payments.
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