Kenyan finance glossary: M-PESA, paybill, KRA, SHIF, CRB

Airtel Money

Airtel Money is Airtel Kenya's mobile money service, part of the wider Airtel Africa mobile-money network. It gives Airtel SIM users (prefixes 073x, 075x, 078x) a wallet that supports Send Money, Pay Bill, Buy Goods and Withdraw, and interoperates with M-PESA and T-Kash for cross-network transfers.

Buy Goods

Buy Goods (formally Buy Goods and Services) is the M-PESA merchant rail used at physical retail. The customer picks Lipa na M-PESA, chooses Buy Goods, enters the till number and the amount, and the merchant is credited instantly. The customer pays nothing; the merchant pays 0.55 percent, capped at KES 200.

Equitel

Equitel is Equity Bank's mobile network in Kenya, launched in 2015 by Finserve Africa. It is a full MVNO (mobile virtual network operator, riding on Airtel's network) that pairs a SIM with the customer's Equity Bank account, so every USSD transaction moves directly to and from the bank account.

Hakikisha

Hakikisha (Swahili for confirm) is the Safaricom M-PESA feature that shows the recipient's registered name for a few seconds before the sender confirms a Send Money transaction, so the sender can catch a mistyped phone number before the payment goes through.

Lipa na M-PESA

Lipa na M-PESA (Swahili for pay with M-PESA) is Safaricom's umbrella brand for merchant acceptance. It covers Buy Goods (till), Paybill and Pochi la Biashara, and it is the rail underneath almost every point-of-sale, biller and government payment in Kenya.

M-PESA

M-PESA is Safaricom's mobile money service in Kenya, launched in 2007. It lets users send, receive, save, borrow and pay from a phone using their SIM-linked wallet, and it processed 46.4 billion transactions in Kenya in Safaricom's FY26.

Paybill

A paybill is a Safaricom shortcode (5 to 7 digits) that a business or institution uses to collect payments where each customer has their own account reference. The customer selects Lipa na M-PESA, Pay Bill, enters the paybill, an account number and the amount.

Pochi la Biashara

Pochi la Biashara is Safaricom's free-to-register M-PESA business wallet for sole traders, hawkers, boda riders and informal merchants. It lets them accept customer payments on their personal M-PESA line without disclosing their phone number, and Safaricom reported 2.09 million Pochi tills at the end of FY26.

T-Kash

T-Kash is Telkom Kenya's mobile money service, launched in 2018 (as a rebrand of Orange Money Kenya). It gives Telkom SIM users a wallet that supports Send Money, Pay Bill, Buy Goods and Withdraw across Telkom agents and PesaLink-connected bank accounts.

Till Number

A till number is a 5 to 7 digit Safaricom merchant code used for Buy Goods and Services payments. The customer picks Lipa na M-PESA, chooses Buy Goods, enters the till number and the amount, and the merchant is credited without needing a per-customer account reference.

Ziidi

Ziidi is Safaricom's in-app money market fund, launched in 2024 in partnership with Standard Investment Bank, ALA Capital and Sanlam Investments. It lets M-PESA users invest as little as KES 100 in a diversified pool of short-dated Kenyan government securities and bank deposits, and see the daily yield inside the M-PESA app.

eTIMS

eTIMS (Electronic Tax Invoice Management System) is the Kenya Revenue Authority system that requires every business to issue tax invoices through a KRA-integrated point. Since 2024 KRA has required all taxpayers (not only VAT-registered) to issue eTIMS-compliant invoices for expenses to be deductible.

iTax

iTax is the Kenya Revenue Authority online portal at itax.kra.go.ke. Taxpayers use it to get and update a KRA PIN, file monthly PAYE and VAT returns, file annual income tax, generate payment reference numbers (PRNs), and download tax compliance certificates.

KRA PIN

KRA PIN is the 11-character taxpayer identifier issued by the Kenya Revenue Authority to every taxpayer (individual or business) in Kenya. It is required to open a bank account, register a Safaricom Lipa na M-PESA till or paybill, file taxes on iTax, transact land, and access most government e-services.

PesaLink

PesaLink is the real-time bank-to-bank transfer rail operated by Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), a subsidiary of the Kenya Bankers Association. It lets a customer at one Kenyan bank send funds instantly to a customer at any other participating bank using the recipient's mobile number or account, up to KES 999,999 per transaction.

B2C

B2C (Business to Customer) is the Daraja API for pushing money from a merchant paybill out to a customer's M-PESA. Insurers use it for claim payouts, betting operators for withdrawals, employers for salary disbursements, and platforms for refunds. Payouts land in the customer's M-PESA within seconds.

C2B

C2B (Customer to Business) is the Daraja API family for accepting money from customers to a merchant paybill or till. It includes the Register URL endpoint (to give Safaricom the merchant callback), the Validation URL (optional real-time accept/reject), and the Confirmation URL (final receipt delivery).

Chargeback

A chargeback is a payment reversal initiated by the payer's issuer against a merchant, typically after a fraud claim, non-delivery dispute or duplicate charge. In Kenya, chargebacks are a card-network concept (Visa, Mastercard); M-PESA uses a distinct reversal flow via *456# or Safaricom Customer Care.

Daraja API

Daraja API is Safaricom's public developer platform for M-PESA, launched in 2017. It exposes REST endpoints for STK Push (customer-initiated payment), C2B (paybill or till payin), B2C (business-initiated payout), B2B, transaction status and reversal, so any merchant can integrate M-PESA into their app.

Float

Float is the electronic value an M-PESA agent holds to serve customers. Cash-in transactions convert customer cash into e-float on the customer wallet; cash-out transactions convert customer e-float back into agent cash. Agent economics depend on maintaining enough float and enough cash to serve peak demand.

Settlement

Settlement is the transfer of accepted payments from the merchant's paybill or till into their linked bank account. M-PESA merchants can settle same-day on request, or default to next-business-day into the linked commercial bank; Card settlement in Kenya is typically T+1 for Visa or Mastercard, longer for cross-border acquirers.

STK Push

STK Push (also called M-PESA Express or Lipa na M-PESA Online) is the Safaricom Daraja API that lets a merchant push a payment prompt to a customer's phone. The customer sees a native M-PESA dialog with the merchant name and amount pre-filled, and confirms with their PIN.

Till Reconciliation

Till reconciliation is the process of matching every incoming M-PESA transaction on a merchant paybill or till against the merchant's internal orders, invoices or bill accounts. Reliable reconciliation is what stops a business bleeding money on mispayments, duplicate refunds and unallocated cash.

NSSF

NSSF (National Social Security Fund) is the Kenyan statutory retirement-savings scheme. Under the NSSF Act 2013, active since February 2023 after a long court battle, contributions are 6 percent of pensionable pay from the employee plus 6 percent from the employer, split across a lower Tier I and a higher Tier II band.

SHIF

SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund) is the Kenyan national health-insurance contribution scheme that replaced NHIF from 1 October 2024. Employees pay 2.75 percent of gross monthly pay (minimum KES 300); self-employed contributors pay 2.75 percent of declared monthly household income, capped and floored per SHA rules.

CRB (Credit Reference Bureau)

CRB (Credit Reference Bureau) refers to any of the three CBK-licensed private bureaus in Kenya (Metropol, TransUnion, Creditinfo) that collect and share borrower repayment history from banks, SACCOs, microfinance and digital lenders. A CRB listing for a defaulted loan can limit access to new credit for up to five years.

Fuliza

Fuliza is Safaricom's M-PESA overdraft product, launched in January 2019 in partnership with NCBA and KCB. It automatically tops up an M-PESA transaction when the wallet is short, up to the user's approved limit, and charges a one-off access fee plus a daily maintenance fee until the balance is cleared.

Hustler Fund

Hustler Fund (formally the Financial Inclusion Fund) is the Kenya government micro-credit scheme launched in November 2022. Registered adults dial *254# to access personal loans from KES 500 upwards at 8 percent per annum, repayable in 14 days, with 5 percent of every loan auto-saved into a pension pot.

KCB M-PESA

KCB M-PESA is the M-PESA savings and loan facility operated by KCB Bank, launched in 2015. Loan tenors run 1, 3 or 6 months, with an interest rate typically starting at 8.64 percent per month equivalent (KCB quotes the 1-month rate as an interest-plus-fee bundle).

M-Shwari

M-Shwari is the M-PESA savings and micro-loan account operated by NCBA Bank, launched in 2012. Deposits earn a low interest rate, and users can borrow short-term loans of KES 100 to KES 100,000 at a 7.5 percent one-off facility fee for a 30-day tenor.