M-PESA has marked 15 years since Safaricom and Vodafone launched the service in March 2007. From its beginning in Kenya, M-PESA has grown to more than 51 million customers, 465,000 businesses, 600,000 agents and 42,000 developers across Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt. The service processes more than 61 million transactions a day making it Africa’s largest fintech provider.
With more people across the continent shifting to smartphones, 3G and 4G broadband, M-PESA is today evolving to become a digital financial services provider. In 2021, M-PESA Africa launched the M-PESA Super App and an M-PESA Business Super App which enable any business on the service to run a virtual store front providing their services virtually through M-PESA Mini Apps.
“We launched M-PESA back in 2007 in a bid to deepen financial inclusion for our customers by connecting them to useful and affordable financial services. In 15 years, we have seen population access to formal financial services grow to as high as 83% as we introduced additional services and reached more customers. Going into the future, we continue to build on our purpose to transform lives by providing our customers with a wide variety of digital solutions that empower them in an increasingly digital world, ” said Peter Ndegwa, CEO – Safaricom.
As part of the 15 year celebrations, Safaricom will reward 15 customers and 15 businesses every hour for 15 days from March 7th 2022 to March 22nd 2022 for sending money or making payments through the M-PESA Super App and M-PESA Business Super App. The winners will be randomly selected and will get back 15% of the transaction value up to a maximum of KSh. 1,000.
“In the last 15 years, M-PESA has transformed the lives of millions of customers empowering them with useful and affordable financial services. With increasing smartphone usage across the continent, we are transitioning to be a digital financial services provider connecting customers and businesses in a digital world,” said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, MD – M-PESA Africa.
The M-PESA Super App is designed to be a customer’s lifestyle companion connecting them to services they need in a typical day including shopping, restaurants and food delivery, transport services, government services and much more. More than 9 million customers and 320,000 businesses have downloaded the M-PESA Super App since its launch.
In addition to the Super App, M-PESA Africa is revamping the M-PESA platform to support additional digital services, faster development of new products, and to achieve increased stability and reliability. The platform revamp includes expansion of the M-PESA APIs to provide developers with even deeper access to the service enabling them to deploy more innovations on the service.
Safaricom is the leading telecommunication company in East Africa. Our purpose is to transform lives by connecting people to people, people to opportunities and people to information. We keep over 41.9 million customers connected and play a critical role in the society, supporting over one million jobs both directly and indirectly while our total economic value was estimated at KES 358.6 Billion ($3.58 Billion) for the 12 months through March 2021.
Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues of over KES 250 Billion ($2.5 billion), Safaricom provides connectivity through wide range of technology, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G in aggregate covering over 99% of Kenya’s population.
We run the world’s largest mobile payment system and Africa’s largest Fintech – M-PESA, the world’s first mobile money transfer system. By empowering over 28 million customers to transact, save or borrow money through their mobile phone, M-PESA has driven financial inclusion in Kenya to more than 82% of the adult population from a low of 25% and generates over KES 82.65 Billion ($826 Million) in revenue per annum.
Safaricom is an equal opportunity employer, actively recruiting staff from different backgrounds reflecting the communities that we serve. We are committed to equal gender representation at all levels. Our target is to achieve 50:50 senior management gender parity by 2025.
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we continue to work towards improving energy and resource efficiency in our network and facilities to reduce carbon emissions and our fuel consumption. We remain committed to becoming a Net Zero carbon-emitting company by 2050.
Launched in 2007, M-PESA is Africa’s largest fintech providing financial services to more than 51 million customers every month. The service empowers customers to transact- send and receive money, make payments, as well as save and access credit all from the convenience of a mobile phone.
M-PESA has connected tens of millions of customers with access to financial services, contributing to a more than a three-fold growth in formal financial inclusion across Africa. It has equally transformed the standard of living in rural areas and empowered women with access and control over their finances. Tapped by many to power the digital economy, M-PESA has contributed to youth empowerment through entrepreneurship especially in e-commerce.
Socioeconomically, M-PESA has provided a lifeline for millions of people facilitating direct disbursements from governments and non-government organisations to refugees, patients accessing health care, economically vulnerable persons amongst other groups.
It continues to be an innovation trailblazer through services such as Fuliza – the world’s first mobile overdraft, M-Shwari which pioneered mobile only banking, the Pochi La Biashara wallet, and the M-PESA Bill Manager among others.
M-PESA is run by Safaricom and Vodacom in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt.