Fintech In Kenya: Analyzing The Gains, Growth And Game-Changers

Innovation and collaboration have fueled the country’s mobile money and tech space for decades. But where does it stand now and what can we expect in the coming years?

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On a quiet Tuesday, on March 6, 2007 to be exact, the world of payments changed forever. The big story in Kenya’s newspapers was in anticipation of the forthcoming launch of Business Daily, a new

business-oriented newspaper, but on that day, mobile phone company Safaricom launched mobile money or M-PESA.

It was not the first such system in the world. At the time, there were money transfer services designed around enabling the working diaspora to send remittances back to relatives in their home countries.

But M-PESA was for local remittances, built for the social habits of Kenyans and focused on fund-raising and supporting one another. Tagged with the phrase, ‘Send Money Home’, it was a money-transfer service based on SMS. The first advertisement for the service showed an office manager sending money to his elderly parents, who were working on a small rural farm. It was simple to understand and an instant hit.

From Barter to Better: Fintech as Partners, not Competitors

Throughout Kenya’s history, its banks steadily adopted new technologies. They computerized transaction processing in the late 1960s, then added tools and services like fax machines, SWIFT messages, VSAT, personal computers, email, and ATMs, the first of which was installed in Kenya in 1989.

According to Mbugua Njihia, a technology entrepreneur, “One can’t have a fintech conversation in Kenya without appreciating the strides made since the days of our forefathers, from trails, routes, roads to the contemporary rails of the digital age, that power commerce.”