M-PESA
Also known as: MPESA, M-Pesa, Safaricom M-PESA, mobile money Kenya
Full definition
M-PESA (from the Swahili word pesa, money) is a mobile money service operated by Safaricom PLC in Kenya since March 2007. It stores value against a user's SIM card and lets them cash in through agents, cash out at agents or ATMs, send peer-to-peer transfers, pay merchants via paybill or Buy Goods rails, borrow through Fuliza and M-Shwari, and save through M-Shwari and Ziidi. Access is by SIM Toolkit menu, the *334# USSD string, and the M-PESA Super App.
M-PESA is the dominant retail payment system in Kenya. Safaricom's FY2026 Annual Report reports 46.4 billion M-PESA transactions in Kenya over the year, 3.13 million registered merchants, and mobile-money revenue of KES 161.1 billion, roughly 42 percent of Safaricom's service revenue. It also runs beyond Kenya, in Tanzania, Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Ghana and Egypt.
Because M-PESA is a wallet on the SIM, the phone number IS the account number. That single design choice is what unlocked the informal economy in Kenya. Almost every paybill, every till, every KRA payment, every SACCO, every SHIF contribution and every donation runs through it, and the phrase Lipa na M-PESA (pay with M-PESA) is how most Kenyan businesses accept money.
Worked example
Send KES 5,000 to a friend: dial *334#, choose Send Money, enter the phone number, enter 5,000, enter PIN. The recipient gets the funds instantly and Safaricom charges a tiered send fee to the sender.
Verified 2026-09-01. Definitions on paybillke are sourced from Safaricom PLC Annual Report FY2026, the Central Bank of Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya, the Kenya Revenue Authority, and the primary operator documentation for each product. How we verify. Report a change.