The MPesa Revolution: How Kenya Used Phone Minutes to Build a New Economy

Macharia Waruingi | WRN News Africa | March 16, 2025

Special Series: Explaining The Blockchain

In 2007, Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom provider, partnered with Vodafone to launch a mobile money service that would radically reshape the country’s economy. Known as MPesa—short for “mobile money”—the platform allowed users to send, receive, and store money via SMS. What began as a way to move small sums quickly became the foundation for a decentralized financial system powered not by banks, but by mobile minutes.

The context was urgent: a vast portion of Kenya’s population was “unbanked.” Traditional banking institutions were either geographically inaccessible, too bureaucratic, or unwelcoming to those lacking formal identification or steady income. Yet mobile phones were everywhere.

MPesa ingeniously leveraged this ubiquity. Users purchased prepaid airtime, then transferred it to others as a form of payment. These digital credits could be cashed out or used to buy groceries, pay school fees, or settle utility bills. With no need for internet access or smartphones, MPesa brought financial inclusion to millions—street vendors, farmers, shopkeepers—who had never been served by traditional banks.

Unsurprisingly, this disruption drew resistance. Kenya’s banking establishment, wary of losing control, filed lawsuits arguing that MPesa was operating as an unregulated bank. Safaricom was taken to court in an attempt to halt the service. But MPesa had already become indispensable to the public. The courts upheld its legitimacy, and its momentum only grew.

To put this in a global context, Apple Pay—widely considered a milestone in Western digital payments—was launched seven years later in the United States, on October 20, 2014. Apple Pay enabled users to make payments using iPhones and other Apple devices, aligning with the broader move toward digital wallets and contactless payments. However, MPesa significantly predates Apple Pay and is recognized as the first successful, large-scale mobile money platform. Unlike Apple Pay, which required internet access and smart devices, MPesa worked on the most basic mobile phones—making it arguably more innovative in its inclusivity and reach.

MPesa didn’t just change how Kenyans moved money. It became a case study in how low-tech, high-impact innovation could leapfrog infrastructural barriers and transform lives. It influenced the development of digital wallets around the world, setting the stage for fintech as we know it.

And now, a new frontier beckons. As MPesa reimagined financial access through mobile minutes, blockchain is is poised to redefine trust, ownership, and capital formation for the digital age.

Tags: #MPesa, #Digital Finance, #Kenya Innovation, #Safaricom, #Banking Disruption, #Financial Inclusion, #Mobile Economy

Watch for Part 2: Blockchain: MPesa’s Bigger, Smarter Cousin—And It’s Just Getting Started.

Macharia Waruingi is President of Actuate Foundation, the creator of Actuate, a pioneering blockchain platform meticulously designed to catalyze the translation and commercialization of scientific knowledge, particularly in the realm of biomedicine, across Africa.

Sources: World Bank: MPesa Case Study, Wikipedia: MPesa, Tech CEOs: Africa Mobile Finance, BBC: How MPesa Changed Kenya