Safaricom mobile money platform M-PESA hit 34 million subscribers in November, signifying the telecommunication company’s commitment to enabling the financial health and wellness of individuals and businesses across the continent.
M-PESA, which turns 18 in March 2025, has evolved over the years beyond payments and transactions to a financial ecosystem offering credit, savings, investment solutions, wealth management, insurance solutions and a host of other financial services to meet the evolving financial needs of customers, enterprises, and the public sector.
With a vast network of over 300,000 agents nationwide, ensuring that even remote areas have access to financial services, the platform plays a significant role in Kenya’s economic growth. Further to this, the platform supports over 1.5M micro, small, medium, and large enterprises through its merchant payment options. Most recently Safaricom acquired an insurance intermediary license partnering with various insurance providers to offer comprehensive solutions to its customers via M-PESA.
In October 2024, Safaricom celebrated its 24th anniversary, launching a year long celebration to its silver jubilee. The Sambaza Furaha na Safaricom Caravan launched on 9th November is in its 4th regional tour in Nairobi following a successful run in Rift Valley, Mountain, and Greater Western regions. The Caravan not only brings Christmas cheer and rewards to customers but also solves customer issues and pain points contributing to its immense success.
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Safaricom’s CEO, Dr. Peter Ndegwa, expressed his excitement over this achievement, stating, “We are immensely proud to reach 34M M-PESA customers in Kenya. This accomplishment underscores our dedication to deliver frictionless, always-on and secure financial services to our customers. This milestone, a show of great trust by our customers, serves as a motivation to keep innovating and delivering value to our customers.”
Through strategic partnerships with other institutions, M-PESA has broadened its reach and enhanced its value proposition. The Daraja platform allows businesses secure seamless integrations of their websites, mobile apps, and point-of-sale systems to M-PESA through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). This has accelerated innovation creating a robust developer community of over 90k supporting over 40k integrations.
Mr Ndegwa says Safaricom continues to innovate and expand its financial services offerings, advancing financial inclusion and transforming the lives of its customers and the community.
In October this year, Safaricom launched M-PESA Ratiba, a first-of-its-kind mobile money standing order solution. The solution achieved over 1M opt-ins in just a month enabling over 260k transactions. M-PESA Ratiba is an innovative feature that is revolutionizing utility and bill payments allowing customers to automatically transfer funds from their M-PESA wallets on a weekly, monthly, and yearly to other persons or settle recurring bills or subscriptions.
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