Kenya is Safaricom’s country of origin, however it has now penetrated other African countries, talking about Tanzania, Ghana, Lesotho, DRC and Mozambique. The majority market though, still lies with Kenya.
In Africa, the mobile money agency now has 50 million active subscribers. Going by this number, this feat makes it the most popular mobile money platform in the continent, and Africa’s largest fintech. The product was launched back in 2007, and ever since, it has not stopped introducing new features and services to the market. These features have contributed to making it the leading fintech platform it is, today.
In a bid to boost remittances, M-PESA has opened its doors to partnerships with other bodies. It says its aim is also to empower customers to send and receive money across more then 200 countries and territories in Africa. To illustrate how partnerships have played a role in M-PESA’s growth, this company and Vodafone launched M-PESA Africa Joint Venture in 2019. Today, the product has grown to be used in several African countries.
Furthermore, Safaricom says that M-PESA has been instrumental in the growth of formal financial inclusion in Africa, pushing up the numbers to 55%. Currently, M-PESA offers two services – Customers can send and receive cash, make bull payments, also receive funds from people all around the world. Businesses use M-PESA to process payments too. At the moment, Safaricom has more than 500,000 M-PESA agents, and more than 500,000 businesses do transactions to the tune of $7 billion every month on the platform.
Not too long ago, M-PESA released a smartphone app with tons of features that can be tracked. “14 years ago, we launched M-PESA to connect our customers to each other and different opportunities. We are delighted to celebrate this remarkable milestone with our more than 50 million customers across the continent. As an honour to this achievement, we are reiterating our commitment and deepening our focus on more innovations that will further transform the lives of our customers”, as Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, MD M-PESA Africa expresses his view on the company’s new feat.
