Safaricom’s M-PESA mobile financial service today marks 18 years since its launch in March 2007. M-PESA is currently available in more than 170 countries around the world, serving more than 70 million customers. The mobile financial services provider has grown to over one million businesses and agents in Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt.
The service also supports over 55,000 integrations on its Daraja platform, which hosts over 100,000 developers. With a current capacity of 4000 transactions per second, the platform processes close to 100 million transactions per day, making it Africa’s largest fintech solution.
The success of this mobile money transfer and payment solution is based on the accessibility and universal nature of the service, enabling millions of people to make instant, secure and reliable financial transactions using their mobile phones.
To mark its 18th anniversary, M-PESA has launched a series of activities across the country aimed at engaging stakeholders in the ecosystem, including customers, investors, communities, technology partners, employees, regulators and the media. The campaign will also serve as a platform to reassure M-PESA customers of Safaricom’s commitment to providing them with a worry-free, safe and secure financial ecosystem to his customers.
“In the last 18 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 to opportunities and powering their growth through our tech-powered solutions,” remarked Dr. Peter Ndegwa.
Today, as more people across the continent move to smartphones, 3G and 4G broadband, M-PESA is evolving into a digital financial services provider. In 2021, M-PESA Africa launched the M-PESA Super App with a business proposition – the M-PESA Business App, which allows any business on the service to run a virtual storefront, offering their services virtually through M-PESA Mini Apps.
Over the past two decades, M-PESA’s services have quadrupled, resulting in financial inclusion that has helped drive national economic development.
As part of the 18th anniversary celebrations, Safaricom launched the Ziidi investment platform with the Ziidi Money Market Fund, which now has over one million opt-ins and will introduce Sharia-compliant investments to help grow customer wealth. Ziidi leverages the convenience of M-PESA to offer customers an easier, faster and smarter way to invest and grow their wealth.
According to Esther Waititu, Safaricom’s Chief Financial Services Officer, the company is scaling the M-PESA platform to support additional digital services, faster development of new products, and greater stability and reliability.
“The future success of M-PESA will be based on its ease of use and seamless integration with other services and products to provide customers with a comprehensive suite of financial services at their fingertips. M-PESA represents the future of mobile financial services across the continent,” she said.
As M-PESA continues to innovate and launch new products and services, it looks forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with its employees and customers in the years to come.
