Safaricom Expands M-pesa Merchant Services Beyond Payments

In Short

Safaricom says it wants M-PESA to play a larger role in how businesses operate. The company plans to expand its merchant services into credit, invoicing, reconciliation and business administration.

What Happened

Safaricom said it is working on services that help merchants manage their businesses, according to CEO Peter Ndegwa speaking during the company’s HY27 results briefing.

The company said the plan is to make M-PESA more useful to small traders and businesses beyond the point where a customer pays for goods or services. Ndegwa cited small operators such as boda boda riders and mama mboga traders, who may need tools to track payments, organise their transactions and access financial services.

Safaricom reported a merchant population of 4.5 million during the six months ended September 2026, up 90.3%. It also reported that Pochi la Biashara reached 3.2 million customers, an increase of 115.3%, while Lipa na M-PESA had 1.3 million merchants.

Safaricom said merchant transaction volumes increased 52.6% to 4.7 billion. It reported KSh8.18 billion in revenue from merchant transactions, up 34.6%.

Ndegwa said merchant services would include financial products developed with partners, alongside tools that help businesses handle administrative tasks. Safaricom specifically pointed to reconciliation and invoicing, tasks that can be difficult for small businesses when transactions are spread across cash, mobile money and other payment channels.

Why It Matters

If Safaricom adds these tools to M-PESA, it could shift the product from a payment acceptance channel into a wider set of day-to-day business tools. For small merchants, features like invoicing and reconciliation, which means matching money received with sales records, can reduce manual work and make it easier to understand cash flow.

Safaricom also signalled that credit is part of the expansion, aimed at working capital needs such as buying stock and paying suppliers. The company framed this as an effort to combine its consumer and enterprise capabilities around people who use M-PESA both as customers and as business operators.