M-Pesa – Africa’s leading fintech platform – marks 15 years of transforming lives
Vodafone Group Plc
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• Launched on 6 March 2007, originally as an idea part-funded by the UK Department for International
Development in partnership with Vodafone, M-Pesa – Africa’s first mobile payments service – has
been a major driver of financial inclusion, and now has 51 million customers across seven countries
• M-Pesa Africa has grown to become a full financial services provider. The ‘Super App’ – launched in
2021 – is already being used by 9 million customers to access a broader range of services including
savings, insurance and credit
• M-Pesa is now working with software developers to create ‘mini apps’, where businesses can create
their own platforms within the M-Pesa Super Apps.
Vodafone, and its African subsidiaries Vodacom and Safaricom, today marked the 15
anniversary of M-Pesa, the
service launched in March 2007 to enable money transfers between people using 2G feature phones. From its
beginning in Kenya, M-Pesa has grown to serve more than 51 million customers and 465,000 businesses. The service
is provided by 600,000 agents across Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho,
Ghana and Egypt. M-Pesa processes more than 61 million transactions a day, making it Africa’s largest fintech
provider, and it has attracted 42,000 external developers to create additional services for the platform.
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With more people across the African continent shifting to smartphones, and using 3G and 4G broadband, M-Pesa is
evolving to become a digital financial services provider. In 2021, M-Pesa Africa launched the M-Pesa Super App and
M-Pesa Business Super App which enables any business on the service to run a virtual storefront providing their
services through M-Pesa Mini Apps.
Nick Read, Chief Executive Officer, Vodafone Group said: “As the original mobile money service, M-Pesa has been the
most significant driver of financial inclusion in Africa over the past 15 years. It is the continent’s largest fintech
platform and provides access to financial services for more than 50m people – in a secure, affordable, and
convenient way. M-Pesa is a great example of how a regional platform can evolve and grow to meet and anticipate
customer needs using smartphone technology – from peer-to-peer money transfer, to payment of utility bills, to
enabling the payroll of businesses, and to financial services such as micro-loans.”
