KenyaAn economy centered on mobile

In Kenya, your phone can be your wallet, bank account and payment method all at once. Much of that runs through M-PESA, followed by Airtel Money, the mobile money platforms operated by Safaricom and Airtel Kenya. Together, they account for nearly half of online transactions, with M-PESA handling around 100 million transactions daily.

In eCommerce, the share of payments made through mobile money is still growing at a healthy pace, averaging around 12% a year between 2025 and 2028, even as the market matures.

But its role goes well beyond eCommerce. Using just their phones, farmers can receive payments for goods, families can send money to loved ones, and households can pay electricity bills or school fees without needing to rely on a traditional bank branch. That gives a sense of just how central it has become to everyday life in Kenya.

Mobile money apps even provide services that are usually associated with banks, like giving loans. According to The Global Findex 2025, 86% of Kenyans who took out a formal loan in 2025 did so through mobile money.

The clearest evidence of Kenya’s mobile-first habits can be seen in what happens when merchants put the ways Kenyans already pay at the heart of the customer journey.

Cash remains important, particularly in retail and ride-hailing. It currently accounts for 32% of eCommerce payments and, while it’s expected to fall to 28% by 2028, it still represents a significant amount of the market share. Cash remains much more widely used than debit cards, which are used for around 10% of purchases, and credit cards, at just 1%.

The preference for local payment options keeps showing up in how Kenyans shop online. In our 2026 retail survey, 42% of Kenyan respondents said broader local payment method access had made the biggest difference to their shopping over the previous year. But the survey also surfaced another interesting signal: BNPL may have room to grow. While it is still a relatively small part of the market, 59% of respondents said not having BNPL available was their biggest payment barrier.

Kenya’s digital economy is growing beyond payments. Better access to fiber-optic networks and public Wi-Fi is bringing more people online, while cross-border eCommerce is gaining ground and is projected to account for more than 28% of eCommerce volume by 2027.

Mobile money may be the dominant habit, but Kenya’s payment ecosystem is becoming more connected behind the scenes. The next evolution is helping existing payment methods work together.

PesaLink, Kenya’s real-time interbank payment system, is moving toward identity-based transfers (phone number or national ID instead of bank-account details) and pursuing interoperability across banks, wallets, merchants, and agents. Thanks to this growing interoperability, bank transfers are projected to grow by 60% in 2026.

PesaLink’s partnership with PAPSS connects 80+ Kenyan banks, fintechs, SACCOs and telecommunications companies to the wider African payment network, supporting 24/7 cross-border settlement in local currencies.

This interoperability will make it easier for money to move between different parts of the financial system, from banks and wallets to merchants and agents, even across borders.