Vodafone Foundation M-PESA What is M-PESA? How it works Key services Contact us M-PESA stories What is M-PESA? M-PESA is Africa's most successful mobile money service and the region’s largest fintech platform. M-PESA is the preferred way to make payments across the continent both for the banked and unbanked due to its safety and unmatched convenience. It also provides financial services to millions of people who have mobile phones, but do not have bank accounts, or only have limited access to banking services. Now, M-PESA provides over 49.7 million people with a safe, secure and affordable way to send and receive money, top-up airtime, make bill payments, receive salaries, get short-term loans and much more. Read more about our COVID-19 response Established on 6th March 2007 by Vodafone's Kenyan associate, Safaricom, M-PESA is Africa's leading mobile money service with more than 430,000 active agents operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. Our 49.7 million customers are making over 15.2 billion transactions year through M-PESA In early 2020, Vodacom & Safaricom completed the acquisition of the M-PESA brand from Vodafone Group through a newly created joint venture. The joint venture will accelerate the growth of M-PESA through Africa by giving both Vodacom and Safaricom full control of the M-PESA brand, product development and support services as well as the opportunity to expand M-PESA into new African markets. Find out more about the joint venture Established on 6th March 2007 by Vodafone's Kenyan associate, Safaricom, M-PESA is Africa's leading mobile money service with more than 918,500 active agents operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique and Tanzania. 14 Years of M-PESA How it works Customers register for the service at authorised agents - often small mobile phone stores or other retailers such as barbers, butchers, bakers, etc. - and then deposit cash in exchange for electronic money. Customers can then send money to their family or friends throughout the country. Once they have registered, all transactions are completed securely by entering a PIN number and both parties receive an SMS confirming the amount that has been transferred. The recipient receives the electronic money in real-time and then redeems it for cash by visiting another agent. Alternatively, they can spend it at an M-PESA merchant. Key services Core services Financial Services Business Services Digital Services Case studies & customer stories International remittances International remittances contribute to achieving 12 of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In particular it is proven a 10% increase in per capita remittances leads to a 3.5% reduction in poverty (United Nations, 2020). Through strong relationships with leading money transfer operators such as Western Union, MoneyGram, World Remit, Remitly and MFS Africa, M-PESA is the destination for over US$1.5 billion remittances every year, including 60% of formal remittances into Kenya and 20% into Tanzania. Credit: M-Shwari Kenya Launched in 2012, M-Shwari is the revolutionary service provided in partnership with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) in Kenya, which enables M-PESA customers to instantly access loans and contribute to savings directly from their phone. For many customers using M-Shwari this was the first time they accessed formal credit or benefitted from interest earning deposits. The success of M-Shwari relies on: customer data: using telcom and M-PESA usage to help determine the customer’s credit risk and affordability to approve loans; security: customers value being able to make financial decisions confidentially, provided through transacting securely over their mobile phone; and flexibility: enabling customers to use savings to leverage credit and earn interest from depositing from as little as 1 Kenyan shilling. Since launching M-Shwari in Kenya, M-PESA has launched similar services with other partner banks in Kenya and Tanzania. Over the past year, M-PESA customers have accessed over €1 billion of credit across our lending services. M-PESA Africa continues to innovate in this area, looking to support consumer choice and working hard to educate customers on the implications of access to credit. Savings: M-Koba Tanzania M-Koba is a service enabling customers to safely store and manage funds within a group. M-Koba was launched in Tanzania in partnership with Post Bank. Across Africa, it is very common for customers to form groups as a mechanism for helping to save and access funds. The ways these groups work vary, but they often provide extra motivation and rigour to put funds away, and by collecting across multiple people they can provide support in accumulating lump sums. While this approach has been very successful, groups still face many challenges - which digitisation with the use of M-Koba can address. For example, M-Koba provides: better security: funds can only be accessed by multiple approvals with their unique M-PESA PIN; more transparency: customers are notified real-time when any group transaction occurs; better flexibility, in case customers cannot make a meeting in person; and greater efficiency: automatically keeping a trail of records and data, which is then easier to use in making decisions, for example to lend to a member. Business collections: M-KOPA Solar, Kenya In Kenya and Tanzania, M-KOPA Solar has connected hundreds of thousands of off-grid homes to affordable solar powered electricity for lighting, cooking and charging their mobile phones. Since the initial outlay for the solar kit is unaffordable for most households, through M-PESA customers make small daily payments to M-KOPA, paying off the cost of the kit over the course of a year. The solar system is then fully owned by the household who can continue to use it without making any further payments. "M-KOPA has brought the benefits of solar lighting to thousands of rural homes, enabling our children to study, relieving our mothers from the burden of fetching firewood and burning kerosene late into the night”- President Kenyatta, July 2015 NGO disbursements: World Food Programme, Kenya The World Food Programme (WFP) was keen to stimulate the local economy around the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and reduce dependence on expensive logistics to distribute food aid flown in from abroad. To ensure the food aid vouchers they were providing to over half a million people in 125,000 households were being spent as intended on food and water, the WFP used the M-Pesa closed loop system which limited to the spending of aid to specified merchant points. Our partnership with WFP has actively improved the livelihoods and financial independence of over half a million refugees and the local merchants living in the Dadaab and Kakuma camps. Business disbursements: G4S Salary Payments, DRC In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), G4S struggled to pay its security staff who were spread around the country. Local supervisors would head to remote areas to pay staff with cash face-to-face, which was a huge security risk to them and their employees. M-PESA allowed G4S to pay its staff in bulk, directly to their mobile phones in an instant. Merchant payments: Vivo Shell, Kenya In Kenya, M-PESA tills were set up across Vivo Shell fuel stations, enabling customers to buy fuel via mobile money. At the end of the day, the fuel station supervisor could transfer the money the M-PESA till to a designated bank account via their mobile phone or a web portal. This greatly reduced cash held at the fuel station and time taken to deposit cash at the bank, increasing the security and efficiency of the fuel stations. M-Pesa online Pay by M-PESA is a service that allows global and domestic merchants to offer Africa’s leading payment method as a payment option at online checkouts. Through M-PESA, merchants can access over 40 million customers, the majority of whom do not have access to other online payment methods such credit or debit cards. Pay by M-PESA offers a broad suite of merchant APIs such as C2B payments, refunds, recurring payments, dynamic currency conversion and settlement. Over two hundred thousand African merchants, including DSTV, Uber, Kenya Airways, and Jumia already accept Pay by M-PESA. Now, the focus is on bringing the service to global players to fulfil the high market demand. Find out how you can begin offering Pay by M-PESA on your e-commerce platform Contact us Businesses & organisations: If you’re a business or organisation looking to use M-PESA services, get in touch! Contact us If you are a global merchant or PSP and want to learn more about integrating with M-PESA, please visit our dedicated site here or contact us here. Customers: If you’re an M-PESA customer, you can find out more about the services we offer in your market below. Vodafone markets M-PESA Kenya M-PESA Lesotho M-PESA Mozambique M-PESA DRC Vodafone Cash Egypt Vodafone Cash Ghana M-PESA Tanzania M-PESA stories Patrick's story Consolata's story Mary's story Felista's story Jehinda's story Investors Operating responsibly Suppliers Careers Site map Legal terms Privacy and cookies Accessibility Report a Vulnerability Contact us ©2021 Vodafone Group Vodafone Group Plc. Registered Office: Vodafone House. The Connection, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2FN. Registered in England No 1833679 We use cookies to improve your experience on this site. Read our policy Your Cookies We use cookies, including from our partners, to enhance and personalise your experience. 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