Airtel Money Kenya plans to launch a series of merchant-focused products in the next one to two months, as the mobile money operator builds on market share gains that have taken it from just over 3% to almost 11% in under five years.
Bonke Michael, acting managing director of Airtel Money Kenya, told ITWeb Africa's Nixon Kanali that merchant payments are where the industry is heading.
"We all know that where the fintech space is going is the merchant space," Michael said. "We are really driving adoption of merchants on Airtel Money. Bizna Wallet was just the first one. We're coming up with other exciting products you'll see in the next one or two months, and all of them are in the merchant space."
Michael has spent nearly a decade at Airtel Money in sales, business development and marketing roles, and has about 15 years' experience in telecoms and fintech. He was appointed acting MD in July following the exit of Anne Kinuthia-Otieno, who left Airtel to join Visa as vice president and head of East Africa.
His appointment comes as parent company Airtel Africa prepares a standalone London listing for its mobile money business, which could be valued at around $10 billion.
The latest Communications Authority of Kenya figures put Airtel Money's share of the country's mobile money subscriptions at 10.9% in March, up from 3.1% in September 2021. Over the same period, the operator has grown its agent network from fewer than 20 000 outlets to 270 000.
Michael attributed the growth to a steady flow of new use cases, a stable regulatory environment and customer experience, which he called the most important of the three.
He said: "You can have the best products in this world, but if your customers are not happy with you, they'll not come to you. Or they can come, and they'll not come again."
Michael also credited interoperability, driven by the Central Bank of Kenya, with opening up competition. Customers can now send and receive money between Airtel Money, rival wallets and bank accounts.
"We've given customers a choice. You can send money seamlessly from Airtel to other networks and receive money seamlessly from other networks," Michael said.
Rather than asking customers to abandon Safaricom's M-PESA, Airtel Money is positioning itself as a second wallet. Airtel has about 24 million subscribers in Kenya, but only around six million of them use its mobile money service.
"The same way you have two SIM cards in your phone and use both of them, try Airtel Money," Michael said.
Cashback is central to that pitch. The programme, branded Rudishiwa, launched in 2023 as an airtime refund on agent withdrawals and was later extended to paybill payments and bank-to-wallet transfers.
After customers said they preferred cash to airtime, Airtel Money began refunding 50% of transaction fees in cash to a dedicated cashback wallet. The refund applies to transfers to other networks, bank-to-wallet and wallet-to-bank transfers, and bill payments.
"As a human being, if you're appreciated, you're happy, and then you transact more. You stick with us longer," Michael said.
Bizna Wallet, launched in August alongside the expanded cashback programme, lets small traders separate business takings from personal funds. Customer payments into a Bizna Wallet are free, from KES1 up to the regulatory limit of KES250 000 (about $1 900).
Merchants receive the 50% cashback when they move money to a bank account or pay bills.
"If you go across the country right now, you'll start seeing businesses displaying Bizna Wallet," Michael said.
Since taking over, his priorities have been distribution, products and partnerships.
Airtel Money has signed I&M Bank and Absa on the merchant side, while KCB and retailer Naivas have joined as agency partners. More deals are in the pipeline.
He said: "You can't grow alone, so you have to grow with partners."
For underserved and rural customers, Airtel Money relies on the depth of its agent network, a USSD channel for feature phone users, an SDK integration option and bank-to-wallet links.
"If you're in the remotest part of Kenya, you should be able to find an agent to service you," Michael said.
Mobile money fraud remains a challenge in Kenya, including SIM-swap scams that have drawn the attention of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
Michael said new products undergo internal security testing and regulatory vetting before launch.
He explained: "We don't just come up with the product today and launch it tomorrow. We conceptualise the product, and it goes through various levels of tests to ensure it meets the security standards to protect our customers, our merchants and our partners."
Airtel Money's next wave of products will focus on loans, savings and investment products, and overdrafts.
The company also plans partnerships with more banks and with savings and credit cooperatives, and intends to open more branded shops where customers can have problems resolved by Airtel staff.
"You'll see a lot of things in the space of loans, in the space of wealth, in the space of overdrafts," Michael said. "Quite a number of interesting things are coming."
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