Douglas Mwiti 
Safaricom PLC has announced a groundbreaking $300 million (Ksh 40 billion) investment to upgrade M-PESA Africa,Africa’s most successful mobile money platform.
The ambitious “M-PESA 2.0” revamp promises to deliver significant enhancements in stability, security, capacity, and overall user experience for its large customer base.
The announcement was made by Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom Group CEO, who emphasized zero downtime and top-tier cybersecurity as key features of the upgrade.
Celebrating its 18th anniversary this year, M-PESA has grown from a revolutionary idea into a financial backbone for over 70 million users across more than 170 countries.
In Kenya alone, the platform powers over one million businesses and agents, while its footprint spans Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, the DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, and Egypt.
With 100 million transactions processed daily and a capacity of 4,000 transactions per second, M-PESA continues to redefine mobile banking at scale.
At the core of M-PESA’s success is its developer-friendly Daraja platform, hosting over 100,000 developers and supporting more than 55,000 API integrations.
The ecosystem enables rapid innovation, allowing businesses to build tailored financial solutions and scale digital services with ease.
The upgrade is expected to supercharge this momentum by unlocking more opportunities for fintechs, startups, and enterprises.
“As Safaricom scales M-PESA to new heights, the focus remains clear: empowering users with reliable, secure, and innovative digital financial services,” read part of the statement.
M-PESA 2.0 is not just a technological upgrade-it is a strategic investment in the future of financial inclusion and economic transformation across Africa.
