Safaricom has widened who can open an account on Ziidi Trader, the service inside the M-PESA app that lets users buy and sell shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). Until now, an account required a valid Kenyan national ID, the same document on the user’s M-PESA registration. According to the company’s announcement, four document types now work:
- Kenyan national ID, the original requirement
- Kenyan passport, for citizens registered with a passport instead
- Military ID, for members of the Kenya Defence Forces
- Foreign passport, for non-citizens living in Kenya or transacting through it
The change matters most for people M-PESA already serves but Ziidi Trader locked out. A KDF officer whose line was registered with a military ID, or a foreign resident whose line was registered with a passport, could send money and pay bills but could not open a trading account.
What Ziidi Trader is
Ziidi Trader went live for all M-PESA users on 5 February 2026, after a pilot that started in November 2025. It is a mini-app under the financial services tab of the M-PESA app, built in partnership with the NSE.
The account structure is what removed the most friction. Traditional share trading in Kenya needs a Central Depository System (CDS) account opened through a stockbroker. Ziidi Trader instead pools customer trades into an omnibus account operated with its broker partners. An internal ledger tracks who owns what. Users never fill CDS paperwork, and that stays true under the new ID rules.
Safaricom’s terms for the product require users to be at least 18 and to have been registered, active M-PESA customers for at least three months before applying. The service operates under Capital Markets Authority oversight, Safaricom said in its launch press release.
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On costs, we worked an example in our launch story: KES 68.50 in total charges on a KES 4,500 purchase of 100 shares, about 1.5 per cent. That covers brokerage commission and statutory levies.
The numbers behind the expansion
Uptake has been quick. Between 5 February and 10 March 2026, Ziidi Trader handled 268,936 share purchase orders, 62 per cent of the 433,498 orders placed on the NSE in that period, according to Safaricom data reported by Business Daily. More than 200,000 investors had opted in by then. Widening the ID rules grows that pool further, this time beyond national ID holders.
Ziidi itself, the money market fund the trading service shares a name with, hit 4.3 million users by March 2026 and held nearly KES 20 billion in savings by June.
A registered, active M-PESA line is still required.
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