History of Mpesa: Evolution of Kenya’s top mobile money banking platform, Safaricom

Mpesa, a Safaricom product is Kenya’s top best mobile money banking service provider. In this post we look into the history, evolution over years, and founder of Mpesa. The questions of who, when, where, and how are answered.

History and evolution of Mpesa

There are several people who claim to have invented Mpesa. There is a case court over the same claims. At the end of this post we paint a clear picture on how the idea of mpesa emerged and you will be judge to decide who the founder is.

7^th March 2007: Mpesa is launched. By November 2007, mpesa had 1 million active users.

• 14th Februrary 2008: Safaricom’s M-PESA “Send Money Home” campaign won the Best Broadcast Commercial award at the 13th Annual GSMA Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain.
• 18th March 2008: Safaricom partnered with Housing Finance to offer M-PESA services from Housing Finance outlets all over the country.
• 30th March 2008: Mpesa hits 2 million customers
• 18th May 2008: M-PESA was awarded as the best project in the Economic Development Category of the Stockholm Challenge Awards.
• 30th June 2008: M-PESA attains a customer base of 3 million customers
• 14th July 2008: Safaricom and PesaPoint enter into a partnership to allow M-PESA users to withdraw money from PesaPoint ATMs directly on their Safaricom line.
• 6th August 2008: Safaricom signs an agreement with PostBank to allow customers to access M-PESA services at all PostBank branches.
• 1st September 2008: Mpesa active users reach 4,143,043
• 18th November 2008: Safaricom wins AFRICOM awards for best Business Solution for Rural Services
• 1st December 2008: Mpesa signs deal with Western Union to allow M-PESA customers to receive money from the U.K
• 19th Feb 2009: M-PESA Wins Best Mobile Transfer Service Award
• 20th April 2009: Safaricom partners with KPLC to allow customers to pay bills through Mpesa
• 18th May 2010: Safaricom and Equity Bank partners to bring customers bank accounts into their mobiles.
• 30th May 2010: M-PESA subscribers stand at 10,232,805 active mobile users
• 22nd October 2010: Safaricom partners with supermarkets to allow payment of goods through mpesa.
• 31st Dcember 2010: Safaricom launches M-ticketing to allow customers buy tickets by paying through mpesa
• 6th January 2011: Safaricom partners with learning institutions to allow payment of school fees through mpesa
• ……………. (Full Mpesa History available to premium members only. You must be a premium member to continue reading)