M-pesa Hits Sh100B Daily and Upgrades Core to 10,000 TPS

In Short

• M-PESA processes about Sh100 billion, around $800 million, every day.
• The platform is handling over 500 million transactions daily.
• Safaricom says it has deployed a new core system that can handle 10,000 transactions per second.
• The company is pushing for deeper use of mobile money in public services.

What Happened

At the Connected Africa Summit in Nairobi, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said M-PESA now processes roughly Sh100 billion, about $800 million, each day.

He added that M-PESA handles over 500 million transactions daily. That includes payments, transfers, and other mobile money activity across its user base.

To support the higher volume, Safaricom said it has deployed a next-generation “core platform”, which is the central system that processes transactions and updates balances. The new setup can handle 10,000 transactions per second, often shortened to TPS, compared to 4,000 TPS two years ago.

Ndegwa also used the event to urge African governments to reduce bureaucracy and work more closely with private companies on digital public services. The goal is to integrate mobile money rails into government-to-citizen flows, like social benefits payouts, fee collection, and tax payments.

Why It Matters

At this scale, reliability and capacity become competitive advantages. A higher TPS ceiling can mean fewer failed payments, faster confirmations, and more room to add services without the system slowing down.

The public sector push is also a clear growth path. If governments route more payments through mobile money, it can increase transaction volumes, strengthen merchant and agent networks, and position M-PESA as infrastructure, not just an app.

Competition is rising across Africa’s mobile money market, with operators scaling similar wallets and payment services. Safaricom’s message signals it wants to defend market leadership while expanding M-PESA’s role across seven African markets.