M-Pesa is Africa's largest mobile money transfer service, started in Kenya in 2007 and already available in a number of countries across Africa and outside Africa.
After completion of a piloting program started by Vodafone between the year 2005 and 2006, Vodafone officially launched the M-Pesa service on 6th March 2007 in partnership with Safaricom, Kenya's leading telecommunications provider.
Launched at a time that many Kenyans especially those from rural areas could not access conventional banking services, M-Pesa quickly gained popularity both in urban and rural areas, and on 30th March 2008, M-Pesa signed it's 2 millionth customer, less than a year since it's inception.
By 30th June the same year, M-Pesa attained a customer base of 3 million active mobile users, and by 1st September 2008, M-Pesa users increased by more than 1 million in less than 4 months, with 4,143,043 active mobile registered users.
M-Pesa History.
- March 2017, M-Pesa officially takes off.
- 11th Feb. 2008-14th Feb. 2008: Safaricom's "Send Money Home" campaign won Best Broadcast Commercial award at the 13th Annual GSMA Global mobile Awards in Barcelona Spain . It also won another award for best use of mobile for social and economic Development.
- In 18th March 2008, Safaricom partnered with Housing Finance to offer M-Pesa Services from Housing Finance Outlets all over the country.
- 30th March 2008. M-Pesa signed up it's 2 millionth customer. The service had become porpular in both urban and rural areas.
- 7th May 2008.- Safaricom signed an agreement with Chevron Kenya Ltd to allow M-Pesa customers access it's services at all Caltex service stations countrywide.
- 30th June 208. M-Pesa attained a customer base of 3 million customers. The service had now become an income earners and economic facilitator in both rural and urban areas.
- 14th June 2008. Safaricom and Pesapoint entered into a partnership to allow M-Pesa users withdraw money from Pesapoint ATMs directly on their Safaricom lines.
- Between July 2008 and 6th August 2008, Safaricom signed an agreement with PostaBank to allow customers to access M-Pesa services at all PostBank branches.
- 1st September 2008, M-Pesa subscribers increase by more than 1 million active users in less than 4 months. 4,143,043 active mobile M-Pesa users.
- 15th October 2008, Safaricom signed a deal with Old Mutual Kenya to facilitate investments in unit trust (Money markets, Equity funds, balanced funds) and payment of premiums for life insurance products.
- 1st December 2008: Safaricom and Western Union signed an agreement that allowed M-Pesa's 5 million customers to receive money from the UK.
- 30th April 2009. Safaricom partnered with Kenya Power (then known as KPLC) o allow customers to pay their electricity bills via M-Pesa.
- 6th May 2009, Safaricom partnered with Kenya Commercial Bank(KCB) to facilitate agent to agent transactions that improved M-Pesa uage for both agents and customers.
- 1st January 2010, Deposit value of Ksh. 25,270,000,000 Billion, Withdrawals of Ksh. 23,034,000,000 Billion, Transfers if Ksh. 23,986,000,000 Billion. Other values amounted to Ksh. 712,000,000 Million. Airtime value of Ksh. 1,414,000,000 Billion.
- 18th May 2010. Safaricom and Equity Bank partnered to bring customers bank accounts into their pockets with the offering of a new banking system that allows the customer to manage their bank accounts via Mobile. This is the only M-Pesa related product that never really picked up well due to differences in ideological methodologies between the partners.
- 30th June 2010: M-Pesa subscribers stand at 10,232,805 active mobile users. Approximately a third of the Kenyan population.
- 1st December 2010, Safaricom Shareholders allowed them to receive their dividend payments through M-Pesa.
- 31st December 2010, M-Pesa customers were now allowed to book and pay for their tickets to concerts, events, Gallas and even sport activities right on their mobile phone courtesy of a new service called M-ticketing.
- 1st February 2011- M-Pesa Deposits of Ksh. 39,565,000,000 Billion, Withdrawals of Ksh. 35,990,000,000 Billion, Transfers of Ksh. 41,351,000,000 Billion. Other values amounted to Ksh. 3,721,000,000 Billion and Airtime value of Ksh. 1,235,000,000 Billion.
- 8th February 2011, Safaricom partnered with I&M Bank to give M-Pesa customers to transfer money from their M-Pesa accounts into an international Visa Pre-paid card known as the M-Pesa prepay Safari Card.
- 6th March 2011 M-Pesa celebrates it's 4th anniversary with it's 13,798,695 active mobile users.
- 31st March 2011, M-Pesa goes Global when Safaricom and Western Union signed an agreement that allowed M-Pesa's 13.5 million customers to receive international money transfers from 45 countries and territories including the US, Canada, Italy and the UK.
- 27th July 2011, Safaricom foundation and KCB foundation formed a coalition of corporate Kenya and Media in launching a massive fund-raising efforts aimed at reversing the suffering of an estimated 3.5 million Kenyans faced with starvation.
- 1st April 3012: 15,000,000 Million active M-Pesa users.
- 27th November 2012; Launch of M-shwari.
- 1st March 2013: M-Pesa had 17,000,000 Million active M-Pesa users.
- 24th June 2013, Safaricom launches Lipa Na M-Pesa, a service that allows consumers to pay for goods and services using M-PESA.
- 1st February 2014, M-shwari had disbursed over Ksh. 7.8 billion in loans and more than Ksh. 24 billion deposits in M-shwari since Launch.
- 1st April 2014, Safaricom, CBA and multichoice partner to enable customers purchase GoTV recorders through Mshwari credits.
- 3rd June 2014, M-shwari lock savings is introduced.
- 1st August 2014; Safaricom reviews M-Pesa tariffs and reduces person to person transfer fees in the most popular low and medium bands (Ksh.10 to Ksh. 1500) upto 67%.
- 1st November 2014, MoneyGram partner with M-Pesa to enable customers in over 90 countries to send money directly to M-Pesa customers.
- 1st December 2014, Safaricom begins an incentive campaign that rewards customers with airtime every time they pay for fuel with Lipa Na M-Pesa.
- 10th March 2015, M-Pesa and Vodacom Tanzania partner to allow M-Pesa users send and receive money to and from Tanzania.
- 24th March 2015, Safaricom and KCB launch a mobile savings and loan product known as KCB-Mpesa.
- 6th October 2015, Safaricom introduce Hakikisha, a service that allows M-Pesa users to confirm the name of the recipient before sending funds in order to reduce incidents of wrong money transfers.
- 15th December 2015, Safaricom launches Lipa Na M-Pesa Shinda Nyumba Promotion. All M-Pesa users and merchants countrywide stand a chance to win one of the three three-bedroomed houses, airtime or cash each time they use Lipa Na M-Pesa.
- 22nd December 2015, Safaricom Launches M-tiba, a mobile centric platform that seeks to provide better coordination of health care services between payers, patients and providers
M-Pesa Services.
How does M-Pesa work?
M-Pesa allows registered users carry out a number of financial services including:
- Deposit money into their M-Pesa virtual wallets.
- Withdraw money from their virtual wallets.
- Send and receive money to and from other M-Pesa users.
- Pay for various goods and services through Lipa Na M-Pesa.
- Save and borrow money from services like Mshwari and KCB M-Pesa.
- Send and withdraw money to and from their bank accounts
- Buy airtime without the need or recharge cards.
To deposit cash into your Mpesa account:
- Visit an authorized M-pesa agent with your phone and a valid ID. Agents can be easily identified due to their characteristic painting and display of Mpesa agent sign.
- Inform the agent how much amount you want to deposit.
- Present the cash to the agent.
- The agent will inturn deposit money into your e-wallent which is an exact equivalence of the cash you gave them.
- Both you and the agent will receive a confirmation SMS from M-Pesa confirming the transaction.
- You can also deposit your M-Pesa account directly from your bank account.
- Go to an M-Pesa agent.
- Cindy from the agent if they have sufficient funds for your transaction.
- Present your original valid identification card.
- Go to your M-Pesa menu under Safaricom in your SIM toolkit.
- Enter the agent number, the amount you want to withdraw followed by your M-Pesa pin.
- Confirm the details of your transaction then press OK.
- You and your agent will receive an SMS confirming the transaction.
- Collect your cash from the agent.
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