Kenya’s Money Transfer App That Impressed Bill Gates

In 2015, The Economist already asked: “Why is Kenya the world leader in mobile money?” The magazine was impressed by M-Pesa, a telephone money transfer system launched in 2007 to manage microloans.

M-Pesa is a microfinance and mobile money transfer system, launched in 2007 by Vodafone for Safaricom and Vodacom, the two largest mobile operators in Kenya and Tanzania

Today, it is used for all kinds of transactions – and is spreading not only in Africa, but also in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, India and beyond.

In its tenth anniversary, M-Pesa completed 6 billion transactions for 30 million users worldwide.

As Bill Gates wrote on Twitter: “In Kenya, M-Pesa is proving that when people are empowered, they will use digital technology to innovate themselves.“.

M-Pesa allows people to store money in a secure digital account and transfer it using their phone, even allowing them to pay bills and send funds abroad. Authorized agents will exchange cash for e-money and can do the same in reverse.

The service is primarily powered by text messages, although an app is also available for the small number of smartphone users.

By 2017, ten years after its launch, M-Pesa had expanded to 10 countries, had 29.5 million active users, and processed up to 614 million transactions per month.

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Originally posted 2019-07-17 10:49:32.

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