2020 COVID reshapes mobile money · M-PESA Africa born · Business tools debut
COVID-19 fee waiver & transaction limit overhaul
16–17 Mar 2020 Following a Sunday presidential directive by President Uhuru Kenyatta, Safaricom held an emergency meeting with the Central Bank of Kenya on Monday 16 March. Announced that evening, effective Tuesday 17 March 2020:
• All P2P transactions below KES 1,000 — free for 90 days (to 30 June 2020)
• Per-transaction limit: KES 70,000 → KES 150,000
• Daily transaction limit: KES 140,000 → KES 300,000
• Wallet holding limit: KES 140,000 → KES 300,000
• Monthly total limit: eliminated
• Bank-to-M-PESA transfers: free (CBK directive, all PSPs)
Note: the initial rollout inadvertently excluded Paybill/merchant transactions. CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge publicly apologised and directed Safaricom to rectify the merchant exclusion.
• All P2P transactions below KES 1,000 — free for 90 days (to 30 June 2020)
• Per-transaction limit: KES 70,000 → KES 150,000
• Daily transaction limit: KES 140,000 → KES 300,000
• Wallet holding limit: KES 140,000 → KES 300,000
• Monthly total limit: eliminated
• Bank-to-M-PESA transfers: free (CBK directive, all PSPs)
Note: the initial rollout inadvertently excluded Paybill/merchant transactions. CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge publicly apologised and directed Safaricom to rectify the merchant exclusion.
Safaricom & Visa announce strategic digital payments partnership
Apr 2020 Safaricom and Visa publicly announced a partnership to build “products that will support digital payments for M-PESA customers.” No product launched yet — this was the foundational agreement that would produce M-PESA GlobalPay two years later. The partnership coincided with the M-PESA Africa JV completion, signalling Safaricom’s clear intent to internationalise M-PESA’s payments reach.
M-PESA Africa joint venture completed — Safaricom & Vodacom acquire brand from Vodafone
6 Apr 2020 Deal first announced in 2019, completed 6 April 2020. Safaricom and Vodacom acquired the M-PESA brand, product development and support services from Vodafone through a newly created joint venture for $13.4 million (KES ~1.3B). M-PESA Africa’s operations relocated to Kenya. Sitoyo Lopokoiyit named inaugural CEO. Peter Ndegwa simultaneously became Safaricom’s first Kenyan-born CEO (effective 1 April 2020). The deal gave both companies full control of M-PESA’s roadmap and opened the door to expansion beyond the 7 existing African markets.
M-PESA for Business App launched for Lipa na M-PESA merchants
18 Jun 2020 Dedicated smartphone app for Lipa na M-PESA merchants (~170,000 at launch). Features: real-time statements, money-in/out performance charts, multi-till management, online self-onboarding at m-pesaforbusiness.co.ke, ability to withdraw to M-PESA, bank accounts, or via agents, and send wages directly. First time businesses could view rich analytics on M-PESA receipts. Android first; iOS followed shortly after.
All M-PESA services consolidated under single USSD code *334#
Sep 2020 Safaricom unified all M-PESA USSD services — previously scattered across multiple short codes — into a single menu at
*334#. Customers no longer needed to remember paybill short codes; the menu auto-populates by county and service type. Groundwork for the Super App era.Pochi la Biashara launched — micro-merchant dual wallet with built-in number masking
27 Oct 2020 Launched on Safaricom’s 20th anniversary. Pochi la Biashara (“business wallet”) lets mama mbogas, boda-boda riders, kiosk owners, and mitumba sellers separate business and personal M-PESA funds on one number — without needing a till number or paybill. Key feature: phone number masking was built in from day one — customers paying into a Pochi wallet don’t see the merchant’s personal number, and reversal requests require the merchant’s approval (unlike standard Send Money). Merchants earn 5% commission on airtime sales from their Pochi wallet. Accessed via
*334#. This is formally Step 1 of Safaricom’s six-year privacy programme.New M-PESA consumer app enters internal testing, then public early access
Dec 2020 Safaricom began internal testing of a fully redesigned M-PESA consumer app in December 2020. Public early access opened within days. Key features previewed: monthly spend tracking with category breakdown, full statement on home screen, biometric authentication (Face ID / fingerprint), SIM-card-free operation, e-receipt downloads, and a “Growth” tab seeded for investment products. Safaricom offered 1 GB free data to customers who installed during early access. The app would remain in testing for 6+ months before official launch.
FY2021 results: M-PESA revenue drops 2.1% — COVID fee waiver effect
May 2021 (FY end Mar 2021) M-PESA revenue fell 2.1% YoY to KES 82.65 billion — the first decline in the platform’s history — directly attributed to the 90-day fee waiver. Half-year (H1 FY2021) M-PESA revenue dropped 14.5% to KES 35.89B. One-month active M-PESA customers grew 13.5% to 26.79 million, showing the waiver successfully drove adoption even as it hurt revenue.
2021 Super App era · Privacy Phase 2 · Amazon talks · FY revenue bounce-back
New M-PESA consumer app officially launched after 6 months of early access
Feb–Jun 2021 After 6+ months in public early access, Safaricom officially launched the redesigned consumer app alongside the Super App on 23 June 2021. Final feature set included: spend tracking with category breakdown, full statement view, e-receipts (PDF download and share), biometric authentication, Pochi la Biashara integration, a Discover tab for mini-app partners, and Request Money functionality. The app worked without a SIM card present.
Amazon × M-PESA integration discussions confirmed publicly
May 2021 Safaricom confirmed active talks with Amazon.com about M-PESA as a payment method on the platform. Building on an existing AWS reseller partnership (February 2020) and the AliExpress M-PESA integration (March 2019). Part of a deliberate strategy to make M-PESA acceptable on all major global platforms. No confirmed launch date was given at the time.
M-PESA Super App & M-PESA for Business App officially launched
23 Jun 2021 The landmark launch of the M-PESA Super App — directly inspired by Alipay and WeChat. Key features:
• Offline mode: complete transactions with no data or internet connection
• Mini-apps ecosystem: SGR ticketing (Madaraka Express), BuuPass bus booking, Mtickets events, GiftPesa vouchers, eBima insurance, Pro-Gas delivery
• Send to Many: pay multiple recipients with a single PIN entry
• Request Money: pull payments from another M-PESA user
• Cross-border send via M-PESA Global (200+ countries, Western Union, PayPal link)
• Zero-rated data: app usage doesn’t consume data bundles
Downloads: over 1.3 million cumulative since December 2020 launch of early access (not new downloads on launch day). M-PESA for Business App: 100,000+ downloads since its June 2020 launch. Promotional: 500MB free data for first-time downloads; KES 500 for every 10th new downloader over 3 days.
• Offline mode: complete transactions with no data or internet connection
• Mini-apps ecosystem: SGR ticketing (Madaraka Express), BuuPass bus booking, Mtickets events, GiftPesa vouchers, eBima insurance, Pro-Gas delivery
• Send to Many: pay multiple recipients with a single PIN entry
• Request Money: pull payments from another M-PESA user
• Cross-border send via M-PESA Global (200+ countries, Western Union, PayPal link)
• Zero-rated data: app usage doesn’t consume data bundles
Downloads: over 1.3 million cumulative since December 2020 launch of early access (not new downloads on launch day). M-PESA for Business App: 100,000+ downloads since its June 2020 launch. Promotional: 500MB free data for first-time downloads; KES 500 for every 10th new downloader over 3 days.
Internal staff access to customer M-PESA data restricted — Privacy Phase 2
2021 Safaricom restricted the ability of internal staff to view granular customer M-PESA transaction data. This was the second step in the deliberate multi-year privacy programme (following Pochi la Biashara’s number masking in 2020), aligned with Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019.
2022 GlobalPay Visa card · Privacy Phase 3 · Ethiopia telecoms entry · Paybill tariff cut
FY2022: M-PESA revenue grows 30.3% to KES 107.69 billion
May 2022 (FY end Mar 2022) Strong bounce-back after the COVID waiver year. M-PESA hit 30 million active customers in Kenya. Lipa na M-PESA merchants grew 63.4% to just under 500,000. M-PESA Business App reached 100,000 active businesses. Revenue of KES 107.69B (~$927M) made M-PESA Safaricom’s largest single revenue line.
M-PESA GlobalPay Visa Virtual Card launched — shop internationally from M-PESA wallet
2 Jun 2022 Two years after the Visa partnership was announced, the product launched. Key details:
• Virtual Visa card linked directly to the M-PESA wallet — no physical card
• Usable at 200+ countries via Visa’s global network (Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Glovo, etc.)
• Dynamic CVV refreshes every 30 minutes for security
• 3.5% forex markup on the prevailing exchange rate — no additional M-PESA transaction fee
• Exclusive for international online payments only (not local KES purchases)
• Repeat payments mode available for subscriptions (Netflix etc.)
• Transaction limits: KES 150,000 per transaction / KES 300,000 per day
• Restricted categories: gaming, gambling, crypto, money transfers
• Planned rollout to Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana via M-PESA Africa / Visa partnership
Launched at an event at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, presented by CEO Peter Ndegwa and Visa VP/GM East Africa Corine Mbiaketcha.
• Virtual Visa card linked directly to the M-PESA wallet — no physical card
• Usable at 200+ countries via Visa’s global network (Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Glovo, etc.)
• Dynamic CVV refreshes every 30 minutes for security
• 3.5% forex markup on the prevailing exchange rate — no additional M-PESA transaction fee
• Exclusive for international online payments only (not local KES purchases)
• Repeat payments mode available for subscriptions (Netflix etc.)
• Transaction limits: KES 150,000 per transaction / KES 300,000 per day
• Restricted categories: gaming, gambling, crypto, money transfers
• Planned rollout to Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana via M-PESA Africa / Visa partnership
Launched at an event at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, presented by CEO Peter Ndegwa and Visa VP/GM East Africa Corine Mbiaketcha.
M-PESA statement data minimised — Privacy Phase 3
2022 Safaricom reduced the personally identifiable information visible in M-PESA statements — third step of the six-year privacy programme. Following Pochi masking (2020) and staff data restrictions (2021).
Safaricom launches as first private telecom operator in Ethiopia
Oct 2022 Safaricom goes live with voice and data services in Ethiopia — the country’s first private telecoms operator, ending Ethio Telecom’s monopoly. Part of a consortium including Vodacom, Vodafone, Sumitomo Corporation, and British International Investment (BII). Consortium bid: $850 million. M-PESA licence not yet granted at this stage — mobile money to follow once regulatory approval obtained.
M-PESA Paybill charges restructured — CBK directive, maximum halved
Announced 30 Dec 2022 · Effective Jan 2023 Paybill charges significantly reduced. Maximum charge: KES 113 → KES 65. Minimum charges as low as KES 4 for small transactions. Introduced simultaneously as CBK re-introduced charges for bank-to-mobile wallet transfers (previously free since the COVID waiver). Paybill differs from Till Numbers: customer bears the charge on Paybill (or it is shared under the Mgao tariff); till number transactions remain free for customers.
2023 M-PESA lands in Ethiopia · HELB mini-app · SME credit pilots · API goes enterprise
HELB student loans disbursed via M-PESA mini-app
Apr 2023 Safaricom and the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) launched a dedicated M-PESA mini-app and mobile wallet for student loan management, disbursements, and repayments. A major validation of the Super App’s government services ambition — students could now receive, track, and repay HELB loans entirely within M-PESA.
M-PESA licence granted by National Bank of Ethiopia — $150M fee paid
11 May 2023 National Bank of Ethiopia granted a Payment Instrument Issuer Licence to Safaricom M-PESA Mobile Financial Service PLC — the first such licence issued to a foreign-owned entity in Ethiopia. The Safaricom-led consortium paid $150 million as an “investment protection fee” to the NBE. A three-month pilot and technical readiness phase (May–August 2023) followed, during which Safaricom secured bank partnerships and onboarded agents.
M-PESA soft-launches in Ethiopia — competing directly with state-owned Telebirr
16 Aug 2023 (soft launch) · Sep 2023 (national) M-PESA soft-launched in Addis Ababa on 16 August 2023, going nationally live in September. Available to Safaricom Ethiopia’s 4 million customers via USSD
Competition context: Telebirr (state-owned Ethio Telecom’s mobile money) had a 2-year head start with 27.2 million subscribers at end of 2022 and over 30M by 2023. Ethiopia: population 120M+, financial inclusion ~35%, internet penetration ~16.7% — enormous untapped market.
By December 2024, M-PESA Ethiopia had grown to 10.8 million cumulative customers (7.1 million 90-day active). By December 2024, 119,500 merchants and 29,200 agents onboarded.
*733# or the dedicated M-PESA Safaricom Ethiopia app (iOS and Android).Competition context: Telebirr (state-owned Ethio Telecom’s mobile money) had a 2-year head start with 27.2 million subscribers at end of 2022 and over 30M by 2023. Ethiopia: population 120M+, financial inclusion ~35%, internet penetration ~16.7% — enormous untapped market.
By December 2024, M-PESA Ethiopia had grown to 10.8 million cumulative customers (7.1 million 90-day active). By December 2024, 119,500 merchants and 29,200 agents onboarded.
Fuliza ya Biashara piloted — merchant overdraft on Lipa na M-PESA tills
2023 First pilot of merchant overdraft directly on Lipa na M-PESA Business Tills — up to KES 400,000 for 24 hours, in partnership with KCB Bank Kenya. Over 538,000 businesses were identified as potentially benefiting. Merchants could overdraw their till to complete payments, with auto-repayment from incoming collections every 30 minutes. A precursor to the full 2025 relaunch with Taasi loans.
Large-organisation Buy Goods & C2B API integrations — Privacy Phase 4
2023–2024 Major retailers, utilities, and large organisations integrated directly with M-PESA’s Buy Goods and C2B APIs. Because these merchants receive payment confirmations via API — not SMS — customer phone numbers were already masked on their end. Fourth step of the privacy programme, and a major enterprise payment infrastructure upgrade enabling real-time payment verification at scale.
M-PESA Global remittance corridors expanded — Bangladesh & Pakistan added via TerraPay
2023 Safaricom and TerraPay (Mobex Kenya) launched direct M-PESA transfers between Kenya and Bangladesh and Pakistan. M-PESA Global now covers 200+ countries for international send, enabling mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-bank transfers across most of the world.
2024 Reliability crisis sparks Fintech 2.0 · Ratiba goes live · Ziidi approved · App merger begins
Repeated M-PESA outages trigger public concern — pressure mounts for platform overhaul
Jan 2024 Safaricom publicly acknowledged frequent M-PESA service disruptions in early 2024. With ~30 million active users and approaching 100 million daily transactions, the ageing platform was under extreme strain. This became the public catalyst for the internal push that eventually produced Fintech 2.0 in September 2025.
M-PESA wallet limit raised to KES 250,000 · transaction charges updated
2024 Wallet holding limit updated to KES 250,000. Agent withdrawals: KES 50 minimum — KES 250,000 maximum. ATM: KES 200–35,000. Sending to other networks (Airtel Money, T-Kash) now uses the same charge schedule as M-PESA-to-M-PESA transfers. Cross-network sends previously required a “Send to Other Networks” option; this was removed in favour of a unified “Send Money” menu.
M-PESA Ratiba (standing orders) goes live — Kenya’s first on mobile money
1 Oct 2024 First announced in September 2023, Ratiba (“schedule”) went live on 1 October 2024. Kenya’s first mobile money standing order feature. Customers automate recurring payments — rent, school fees, subscriptions, insurance, salaries — on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. No penalties for cancelled or failed orders due to insufficient balance. Charge: standard M-PESA transaction fee + KES 5 per automated transaction. Accessible via M-PESA App (Financial Services tab) and USSD
*334# → option 9. Supports: Send Money, Paybill, Buy Goods. Does NOT support: airtime purchases, Pochi la Biashara, international transfers, agent withdrawals.Ziidi Money Market Fund receives Capital Markets Authority approval
Nov 2024 The CMA approved Ziidi MMF — a money market fund accessible directly from M-PESA. Partners: Standard Investment Bank and ALA Capital Limited as fund managers. Minimum investment: KES 100. Daily interest accrual. Free deposits and withdrawals. Official public launch followed in January 2025. Replaced the long-running and legally contested Mali product (piloted since 2019 with Genghis Capital, which later disputed ownership).
MySafaricom + M-PESA apps begin merging into single unified interface
Sep 2024 (beta) After years of maintaining two separate apps, Safaricom began rolling out a merged single app to iOS and Android beta users. The unified app folds M-PESA’s financial services together with Safaricom’s data, voice, and SMS management. Broader rollout followed into 2025.
2025 Fintech 2.0 · Ziidi launches · Daraja 3.0 · SME credit suite · PayPal native
Ziidi Money Market Fund officially launches — 450K opt-ins in first weeks
Jan 2025 Ziidi MMF launched publicly in January 2025. By March 2025 (M-PESA’s 18th anniversary): 450,000+ opt-ins and KES 7.5 billion in assets under management. By March 2026: 4.3 million users — exponential growth compared to ~130,000 in September 2024. Traditional investment funds in Kenya cover ~300,000 individuals total, making Ziidi’s growth remarkable. Shariah-compliant investment options announced as forthcoming.
KES 100 minimum investment — democratising wealth access beyond traditional fund minimums
Fuliza Biashara relaunched + Taasi Till & Taasi Pochi loans debut
May 2025 Major expansion of M-PESA’s business credit suite. Three products launched simultaneously:
• Fuliza Biashara (repackaged): merchant overdraft on Lipa na M-PESA tills — KES 1,000 to KES 400,000, 2% access fee per disbursement, auto-repaid from incoming till collections every 30 minutes
• Taasi Till: short-term term loans KES 1,500–250,000 for businesses with M-PESA tills
• Taasi Pochi: micro-loans from KES 1,000 for informal traders using Pochi la Biashara wallets
Banking partners: KCB, NCBA, Sidian Bank, DTB, Pezesha. Safaricom acting as a credit marketplace, connecting SMEs to multiple lenders. Failure to repay Fuliza Biashara leads to CRB listing after consistent non-payment.
• Fuliza Biashara (repackaged): merchant overdraft on Lipa na M-PESA tills — KES 1,000 to KES 400,000, 2% access fee per disbursement, auto-repaid from incoming till collections every 30 minutes
• Taasi Till: short-term term loans KES 1,500–250,000 for businesses with M-PESA tills
• Taasi Pochi: micro-loans from KES 1,000 for informal traders using Pochi la Biashara wallets
Banking partners: KCB, NCBA, Sidian Bank, DTB, Pezesha. Safaricom acting as a credit marketplace, connecting SMEs to multiple lenders. Failure to repay Fuliza Biashara leads to CRB listing after consistent non-payment.
PayPal withdrawals fully integrated natively into M-PESA App
Jul 2025 Kenyan freelancers and remote workers can now withdraw PayPal funds directly within the M-PESA app — without being redirected to a browser mid-transaction. The fully native integration resolved a longstanding friction point for Kenya’s growing digital economy workforce who receive international payments via PayPal.
Fintech 2.0 — biggest M-PESA platform upgrade since 2015
19–22 Sep 2025 An army of 650 people — 200 flown in by a Safaricom supplier, 200 supporting remotely, 250 Safaricom staff — executed the long-weekend platform migration. Announced September 19, completed and confirmed September 22, 2025.
Technical upgrades:
• Capacity: 4,500 → 6,000 TPS, scalable to 12,000 TPS
• Architecture: cloud-native, microservices — components can be updated independently
• Active-active multi-site: multiple hosting sites running simultaneously for zero-downtime resilience
• AI: embedded for fraud detection, self-healing, real-time monitoring
• Result: no more scheduled maintenance shutdowns
Unlocks in pipeline: tap-to-pay (contactless NFC), bill splitting, shared wallets for couples, Daraja 3.0 developer monetisation.
Technical upgrades:
• Capacity: 4,500 → 6,000 TPS, scalable to 12,000 TPS
• Architecture: cloud-native, microservices — components can be updated independently
• Active-active multi-site: multiple hosting sites running simultaneously for zero-downtime resilience
• AI: embedded for fraud detection, self-healing, real-time monitoring
• Result: no more scheduled maintenance shutdowns
Unlocks in pipeline: tap-to-pay (contactless NFC), bill splitting, shared wallets for couples, Daraja 3.0 developer monetisation.
99.999% target uptime — “you’ll never hear M-PESA has been shut down for maintenance” — CEO Peter Ndegwa
Ziidi Trader piloted — buy & sell NSE shares directly from M-PESA
Nov 2025 Safaricom piloted Ziidi Trader — NSE stock trading integrated into the M-PESA Super App. Features: watchlists, price alerts, portfolio tracking, buy/sell NSE-listed securities. At the time, only ~61,000 of Kenya’s 1.4 million registered NSE investors actively traded. Official public launch followed February 2026.
Daraja 3.0 launched — developer API platform overhauled for the AI era
25 Nov 2025 Launched at the M-PESA Integrators Forum, Daraja 3.0 is a cloud-native overhaul of Safaricom’s API platform. Key changes:
• Promise of 12,000 TPS throughput
• Intelligent AI endpoints: real-time troubleshooting for developers without logging tickets
• Dedicated Partner Success Teams: specialist technical support replacing generic customer care
• Developer monetisation: developers can publish and sell their own solutions within the M-PESA Super App ecosystem — the most significant strategic shift
• Safaricom CFO Esther Waititu noted: 25% of all M-PESA transactions now execute via API
Real-world challenges: developers reported the new sandbox environment as unstable post-launch, leading to an open-source community alternative — Pesa Playground (v1.0.0 released December 22, 2025) — built in Rust/Tauri to simulate the M-PESA ecosystem locally.
• Promise of 12,000 TPS throughput
• Intelligent AI endpoints: real-time troubleshooting for developers without logging tickets
• Dedicated Partner Success Teams: specialist technical support replacing generic customer care
• Developer monetisation: developers can publish and sell their own solutions within the M-PESA Super App ecosystem — the most significant strategic shift
• Safaricom CFO Esther Waititu noted: 25% of all M-PESA transactions now execute via API
Real-world challenges: developers reported the new sandbox environment as unstable post-launch, leading to an open-source community alternative — Pesa Playground (v1.0.0 released December 22, 2025) — built in Rust/Tauri to simulate the M-PESA ecosystem locally.
FY2025: M-PESA revenue hits KES 161.1B — up 15.1% YoY
FY end Mar 2025 M-PESA processed 37.15 billion transactions worth KES 38.29 trillion (~USD 292.3B) in FY2025. Revenue: KES 161.1 billion (+15.1% YoY). Fuliza disbursed an average of KES 2.5 billion daily in short-term advances with ~7.9 million active customers. M-PESA now accounts for nearly half of Safaricom’s total revenue.
2026 Ziidi Trader live · P2P masking · Tanzania tap-to-pay · 40M customers · 19 years
M-PESA hits 40 million customers in Kenya — turns 19
6 Mar 2026 M-PESA celebrated its 19th birthday (launched March 2007) having crossed 40 million customers in Kenya alone. Pan-Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt): 70M+ customers in 170+ countries for international remittances. Financial inclusion in Kenya: from 26% in 2006 → 84.8% by 2024. Daily transactions in Kenya: ~100 million.
Ziidi Trader officially launches with NSE & Kestrel Capital — wins GLOMO Best FinTech
10 Feb 2026 Ziidi Trader launched publicly in partnership with the Nairobi Securities Exchange and Kestrel Capital. M-PESA users can buy and sell NSE-listed shares with as little as the cost of a single share. Total Ziidi user base at launch: 4.3 million (vs 1.15M in September 2025; 130,000 in September 2024).
Safaricom won the GLOMO “Best FinTech” award at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, partly on the strength of Ziidi’s growth and Fintech 2.0.
Safaricom won the GLOMO “Best FinTech” award at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, partly on the strength of Ziidi’s growth and Fintech 2.0.
Ziidi MMF account-lock controversy surfaces — KES 1M+ funds inaccessible on maturity day
12 Feb 2026 A diaspora user (Kithinji Muriungi) published a video claiming Safaricom restricted his M-PESA account on the same day his Ziidi MMF funds — allegedly over KES 1 million — matured. Safaricom acknowledged a system issue affecting some Ziidi users during the same period and apologised. The case raised questions about how account restrictions interact with investment product maturity. Possibly linked to backend issues during the Ziidi Trader launch week. Safaricom had not publicly resolved the individual case at time of publication.
M-PESA Tanzania launches tap-to-pay via Android NFC & Visa tokenisation
17 Mar 2026 Vodacom Tanzania’s M-PESA launched tap-to-pay for Android phones using Visa tokenisation via Paymentology‘s issuing infrastructure. A Tanzanian user holds their NFC-enabled phone near any Visa terminal; the transaction is tokenised and settled instantly, automatically converting Tanzanian Shillings to the billing currency. No physical card, no forex bureau needed. Cross-border usable — a Tanzanian can tap to pay in Nairobi or London. Tanzania’s mobile money ecosystem: 76.5 million accounts as of December 2025 (21% growth from 2024). This debut precedes the Kenya rollout, which was announced as coming but not yet live at this date.
M-PESA P2P phone number masking goes live — six-year privacy programme complete
24 Mar 2026 The culmination of the six-year privacy programme. Person-to-person Send Money — 37 million daily transactions worth KES 27 billion — now shows a masked number (e.g. 0722***678) and only first + last name instead of three names and a full number. CBK approved the change aligned with Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019.
How the workaround works: forward the transaction SMS to 334 → M-PESA sends a request to the sender asking if they consent to share full details → if they agree, recipient receives name and number; if they decline, recipient is notified of refusal. Each request valid 24 hours, capped at one per transaction.
Privacy programme timeline: Pochi masking (2020) → staff data restrictions (2021) → statement minimisation (2022) → large-org API masking (2023/24) → P2P masking (Mar 2026). The M-PESA number was previously described as “a public-facing identifier” by tech-ish.com’s Dickson Otieno as far back as January 2020.
How the workaround works: forward the transaction SMS to 334 → M-PESA sends a request to the sender asking if they consent to share full details → if they agree, recipient receives name and number; if they decline, recipient is notified of refusal. Each request valid 24 hours, capped at one per transaction.
Privacy programme timeline: Pochi masking (2020) → staff data restrictions (2021) → statement minimisation (2022) → large-org API masking (2023/24) → P2P masking (Mar 2026). The M-PESA number was previously described as “a public-facing identifier” by tech-ish.com’s Dickson Otieno as far back as January 2020.
New Fintech 2.0-enabled features rolling out in 2026
2026 — rolling CEO Peter Ndegwa confirmed the following features entering rollout — all enabled by the Fintech 2.0 cloud-native platform:
• Tap-to-pay Kenya: NFC contactless M-PESA payments at merchant terminals — no STK popup or phone number required (following Tanzania’s March 2026 lead)
• Split a bill: divide group restaurant or shared bills directly among friends via M-PESA
• Shared wallet: couples or families manage a joint M-PESA pool from which either party can spend
• Daraja 3.0 developer monetisation: third-party fintech apps can publish and sell solutions within the M-PESA Super App ecosystem
• Ziidi Shariah-compliant fund: expanding investment access to Muslim customers
• Tap-to-pay Kenya: NFC contactless M-PESA payments at merchant terminals — no STK popup or phone number required (following Tanzania’s March 2026 lead)
• Split a bill: divide group restaurant or shared bills directly among friends via M-PESA
• Shared wallet: couples or families manage a joint M-PESA pool from which either party can spend
• Daraja 3.0 developer monetisation: third-party fintech apps can publish and sell solutions within the M-PESA Super App ecosystem
• Ziidi Shariah-compliant fund: expanding investment access to Muslim customers
Primary sources: tech-ish.com Safaricom press releases Safaricom Newsroom TechCabal Techweez · Last verified March 2026
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