Kenya’s digital payments market continues to expand

Shehryar Ali, Senior Vice President and Country Manager for East Africa and Indian Ocean Islands at Mastercard, at the recently concluded Africa Tech Summit in Nairobi 

Kenya’s digital payments market continues to expand, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1% between 2024 and 2028. By 2028, the market value is expected to reach US$14.54 billion. Meanwhile, mobile wallet payments driven by M-PESA, Africa’s largest mobile money platform and a product of the Kenyan mobile network operator Safaricom, showed a 12.7% CAGR between 2020 and 2024.

In line with our shared commitment to fostering innovation and financial inclusion within this evolving digital landscape, we have entered a partnership with Safaricom to accelerate the adoption of payment acceptance and cross-border remittance services in Kenya. This collaboration is set to benefit over 636,000 merchants using M-PESA.

Leveraging our global payment infrastructure and the mobile money platform’s extensive merchant network, this partnership will make more seamless and secure payment solutions available to merchants, enabling them to serve customers across global markets. It will also boost remittance services by streamlining cross-border transactions. 

By embedding our omnichannel acceptance solutions across M-PESA’s merchant space, we will scale digital payments across Kenya. This collaboration will unlock new opportunities for the mobile money platform’s merchants, allowing them to provide a more efficient and frictionless payment journey to their customers.

The first initiatives under the partnership are expected to roll out in the coming months, advancing Safaricom’s journey toward securing its acquiring license. By empowering merchants to grow and increase their contributions to Kenya’s GDP, we are building an inclusive digital economy that works for everyone everywhere.

By Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President, Market Development, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Mastercard