Safaricom crosses 30m monthly active M-Pesa users
By Noel.Wandera, March 11, 2022
Safaricom’s monthly M-Pesa users in Kenya have crossed the 30 million mark, with the telco aiming to push the service to its limit by growing it internationally.
Chief executive Peter Ndegwa attributed the growth to constant innovations, which have given users service delivery options.
“M-Pesa’s success has been achieved on the back of consistent focus on the needs of our customers, by ensuring that we are constantly delivering innovations that add value to their lives,” he said in a statement.
The growth in M-Pesa customer usage has been driven by the launch of various innovations over the years including financial services such as M-Shwari, KCB M-Pesa and Fuliza.
Safaricom has established both local and global partnerships that enable customers to send and receive money, and to make payments across the world including with PayPal, AliExpress and Western Union.
The platform, whose mainstay is money transfer, has been a major revenue generator for Safaricom, with the highest earning of $781.7 million (Sh89.2 billion) generated in the Financial Year 2021.
Other markets
Ndegwa said Safaricom and Vodacom are focusing on growing the service in other markets, with a goal of bringing them to the same level of maturity as Kenya. In April 2020, the two organisations announced the launch of M-Pesa Africa to consolidate M-Pesa’s resources, strategy and roadmap across the continent.
“M-Pesa Africa is investing in a common platform that will empower all markets to offer M-Pesa’s entire range of services and products,”he said. It has also invested in an M-Pesa Super App for customers and businesses, with the customer app available in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In addition, M-Pesa Africa is looking at growing continental and global partnerships with other financial service providers to introduce new International Money Transfer solutions, said Ndegwa.
Kenya remains M-Pesa’s most active market, accounting for more than 30 million of the service’s 51 million customers across Kenya and in various other African countries.