FMI

CMO Digest

From Safari to Super Apps: Lessons from Kenya’s M-Pesa

I’ve just returned from a great holiday visiting Kenya. Beyond the beaches and the safari, one thing was impossible to miss: the green Safaricom M-Pesa signs. They were everywhere - from petrol stations in Nairobi to kiosks in rural towns. For a visitor, it was a striking reminder that mobile money isn’t a niche service here; it’s the financial infrastructure of the country.

M-Pesa began in 2007 as a simple way for people with basic phones to send and receive money. Nearly two decades later, it has become the backbone of Kenya’s financial system, serving tens of millions of customers and processing transactions worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually. What started as a utility has evolved into a national operating system.

Safaricom’s Super App Pivot

In April 2026, Safaricom launched My OneApp - a unified platform that merges the legacy M-Pesa and MySafaricom apps. This wasn’t just a cosmetic refresh. It was a strategic pivot to position M-Pesa as a super app, consolidating payments, savings, loans, insurance, and e-commerce into one interface.

This evolution has been enabled by Safaricom’s ongoing 5G rollout, which now covers Nairobi, Mombasa, and a growing number of regional hubs. For a market where mobile-first behaviour is already deeply embedded, 5G isn’t simply about speed - it’s about creating the bandwidth for richer financial experiences, more reliable transactions, and a platform capable of supporting a multi-service ecosystem.

The new app offers:

  • Unified balances - cash and airtime displayed together.

  • AI Pay & Scan to Pay - frictionless transactions using QR and NFC.

  • Data-free access - customers can use the app without consuming bundles.

  • Zuri assistant - conversational support embedded in the app.

For CMOs, the lesson is clear: Safaricom isn’t just building a payments tool, it’s building an ecosystem where customer engagement is continuous, sticky, and multi-dimensional.

Expanding into Financial Services

The most striking innovations are in financial capability:

  • M-Pesa Hisa allows retail customers to buy Treasury Bills directly from their phone - a democratization of investment access that bypasses traditional brokers.

  • M-Pesa Bima introduces parametric insurance for health and agriculture, paying out automatically when predefined conditions are met.

  • M-Pesa Duka integrates e-commerce, turning the app into a marketplace as well as a wallet.

This is where M-Pesa moves beyond convenience into financial inclusion at scale. Millions of Kenyans who previously had no access to formal savings, insurance, or investment products are now participating in the financial system through their mobile phone.

Regulatory Lens

Kenya’s regulators are watching closely.

  • The Capital Markets Authority is scrutinizing M-Pesa Hisa to ensure retail access to Treasury Bills doesn’t destabilize traditional investment channels.

  • The Central Bank of Kenya is focused on fraud prevention and consumer protection as M-Pesa expands into insurance and investments.

  • Data privacy is a growing concern, with Safaricom introducing masked phone numbers and AI-driven personalization that regulators want to balance against transparency.

For FS CMOs, this is a reminder that innovation and oversight must move in tandem. The opportunity is vast, but so is the responsibility.

Global Resonances

This was my first time experiencing Africa’s fintech ecosystem up close, but I’ve travelled to China many times, where super apps like WeChat and Alipay have long been embedded in daily life. In Kenya, I saw many resonances: accelerated growth, major brands expanding, and infrastructure projects everywhere. Yet, alongside this progress, there were also reminders of inequality - visible contrasts between prosperity and hardship.

China feels like it has leapfrogged other countries in fintech innovation, and Kenya seems on track to do the same. M-Pesa’s My OneApp is not just a payments tool - it is becoming Kenya’s digital operating system, reshaping daily life and financial inclusion at speed.

Closing Thought

For financial services leaders, Kenya’s story is a case study in how technology can leapfrog legacy systems, redefine customer engagement, and expand inclusion. The lesson is not just about mobile money - it’s about how a brand can evolve into an ecosystem, and how regulation, innovation, and customer trust must be balanced to sustain that growth.

Stay tuned for more interviews with leading FS marketers from this exciting country.