Kenya's mobile money success marks 15 years

Safaricom is set to reward more than 5000 customers and businesses starting today as the telco celebrates 15 years since the launch of M-PESA.

The telco will reward the customers and businesses 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 per cent of the transaction value up to a maximum of Sh1,000. The rewards will run till March 22.

"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 per cent as we introduced additional services and reached more customers," said Peter Ndegwa, CEO - Safaricom.

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.

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 storefront providing their services virtually through M-PESA Mini Apps.

"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.

SOURCE: CAPITAL FM