TIDMVOD
Vodafone Group Plc
07 March 2022
7 March 2022
M-PESA - AFRICA'S LEADING FINTECH PLATFORM - MARKS 15 YEARS OF
TRANSFORMING LIVES
-- 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(th) 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.
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."
The M-Pesa Super App is designed to be a customer's lifestyle
companion connecting them to services they need in a typical day
including shopping, restaurants and food delivery, transport
services, government services and much more. More than 9 million
customers and 320,000 businesses have downloaded the M-Pesa Super
App since its launch.
In addition to the Super App, M-Pesa Africa is revamping the
M-Pesa platform to support additional digital services, faster
development of new products, and to achieve increased stability and
reliability. The platform revamp includes expansion of the M-Pesa
APIs to provide developers with even deeper access to the service
enabling them to deploy more innovations on the service.
- ends -
Note to Editors
About M-Pesa
Launched in 2007, M-Pesa is Africa's largest fintech providing
financial services to more than 51 million customers every month.
The service empowers customers to transact- send and receive money,
make payments, as well as save and access credit all from the
convenience of a mobile phone.
M-Pesa has connected tens of millions of customers with access
to financial services, contributing to a more than a three-fold
growth in formal financial inclusion across Africa. It has equally
transformed the standard of living in rural areas and empowered
women with access and control over their finances. Tapped by many
to power the digital economy, M-Pesa has contributed to youth
empowerment through entrepreneurship especially in e-commerce.
Socioeconomically, M-Pesa has provided a lifeline for millions
of people facilitating direct disbursements from governments and
non-government organisations to refugees, patients accessing health
care, economically vulnerable persons amongst other groups.
It continues to be an innovation trailblazer through services
such as Fuliza - the world's first mobile overdraft, M-Shwari which
pioneered mobile only banking, the Pochi La Biashara wallet, and
the M-Pesa Bill Manager among others.
M-Pesa is run by Safaricom and Vodacom in Kenya, Tanzania,
Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Ghana and
Egypt. It provides customers with access to the widest agent
network across the continent at more than 600,000 agent outlets and
to cashless payments at more than 465,000 businesses.
For further information:
Vodafone Group
Media Relations Investor Relations
GroupMedia@vodafone.com IR@vodafone.co.uk
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