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M-Pesa Africa’s strategy to capitalise on Kenya’s growth

By , ITWeb’s Zambian correspondent.
Kenya , Africa , 17 Mar 2022

Kenya remains M-Pesa’s most active market and accounts for over 30 million of the service’s 51 million customers, according to Safaricom.

This customer base has been established across several markets including DRC, Egypt, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Safaricom added that the growth in M-Pesa customer usage is driven by the launch of various innovations over the years including financial services such as M-Shwari, KCB M-Pesa and Fuliza.

Safaricom also credited growth to local and international partnerships it has established with PayPal, AliExpress and Western Union, to enable customers to send and receive money and to make payments across the world.

The company added that over the last two years it has witnessed “explosive M-Pesa growth” in business. The number of companies accepting payments on its Lip Na M-Pesa service has increased from 173,000 in 2020 to the current amount of over 387,000.

Safaricom and Vodacom are focusing on growing service in other markets to match the level of maturity in Kenya.

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said, “The M-Pesa success has been achieved on the back of consistent focus on the needs of customers by ensuring that we are constantly delivering innovations that add value to their lives. We thank all our customers for getting us to the 30 million monthly active customers’ milestone. As the country goes digital with growing smartphone usage, we are committing to continue exploring and delivering life changing innovations in a digital world.”

Safaricom and Vodacom announced the launch of M-Pesa Africa in April 2020 with a goal of consolidating M-Pesa’s resources, strategy and roadmap across the continent.

According to the companies, 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, adding that it has invested in an M-Pesa Super App both for customers and businesses with the customer App available in Kenya, DRC, Mozambique and Tanzania.

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