Safaricom has officially launched Ziidi Trader, a new feature within the M-PESA app that allows millions of Kenyans to buy and sell shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) directly from their phones.
With no broker, no bank, no paperwork and as little as 60c (KSh100), users can open a trading account, select a listed company, and make a purchase in under two minutes.
Kiama MJ Mutahi, a techpreneur who tracks East Africa’s startup funding and corporate moves, hailed the innovation as a revolutionary shift in Kenya’s capital markets, where opening a brokerage account once took up to four weeks and required a $30 (KSh5 000) minimum.
“This is not just fintech innovation. It’s wealth redistribution through infrastructure. A bodaboda rider in Kisumu can now invest the same way a banker in Westlands does,” he said.
If just 10% of M-PESA’s 34 million users invest $6 (KSh1 000) monthly, that’s $248.8 million (KSh40.8 billion) in fresh retail capital each year, triple the NSE’s current retail inflows.
It is estimated that the initiative could see Kenya overtake South Africa in retail stock ownership by 2027, not due to GDP, but because of technology-led inclusion.
The NSE has already integrated Ziidi Trader into its trading infrastructure, paving the way for real-time transactions, same day settlement and instant mobile withdrawals.
Users can track portfolios, set watchlists, receive alerts and monitor dividends, all within the familiar M-PESA environment.
The concept builds on the success of Ziidi Money Market Fund, launched in December 2024 in partnership with Standard Investment Bank and ALA Capital.
That fund hit $65.1 million (KSh10.68 billion) in assets under management by June 2025 and attracted more than 450 000 investors in just six months, proof that ordinary Kenyans are eager to invest when access barriers are removed.
Similar mobile-based investment models have succeeded elsewhere in Africa.
In Ghana, Fido Invest allows mobile-money users to buy treasury bills via USSD, while Nigeria’s Trove and Chaka apps let retail investors buy global stocks with as little as $1.28 (₦1,000). Both countries saw a huge jump in millennial participation in local markets.
For Kenya, the potential ripple effect is transformative as the NSE will gain liquidity, listed companies would tap new micro-investor bases and everyday Kenyans get to join the wealth-building conversation, all powered by their mobile wallets.
As one Nairobi trader put it: “In 2007, M-PESA banked the unbanked. In 2025, it’s investing the uninspired.”
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