Safaricom Plc CEO Peter Ndegwa has announced plans to introduce new features on its M-Pesa platform in the telco’s effort to offer seamless services to customers.
This follows the recent upgrade to Fintech 2.0 technology a next-generation core platform designed to strengthen resilience, expand capacity, and unlock advanced AI-driven innovation
In an interview on KTN’s Trading Bell, Ndegwa said the telco plans to introduce a “wallet-sharing” option that will let users authorize contacts of their choice to transact using their M-PESA account.
“The most important thing customers should know is that we’ll now have new features we can introduce. For example, you will be able to share your wallet with your partner and allow them to use it in your absence, or even your son or daughter. That might be controversial,” Ndegwa said.
Other features include tap-to-pay, AI-powered fraud detection, and bill splitting, which will allow groups to share expenses directly on M-PESA.
“You go into a restaurant and ask people to split the bill using M-PESA. We also have tap-to-pay capabilities. So new functionalities are coming,” he added.
Ndegwa further assured that customers will no longer experience M-Pesa shutdowns for repair or maintenance, a major inconvenience that has, over the past years left millions of users stuck.
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“We’ve launched a major revamped M-PESA platform we are calling Fintech 2.0. M-PESA has been very stable, but now we need to look at platforms of the future. This new platform has more speed, more capacity and is more resilient,” Ndegwa said.
“You’ll never hear M-PESA has been shut for repair or for maintenance. You know the way we used to say we’re shutting down for maintenance and when it gets shut, everything stops. It will never happen,” he added.
The Fintech 2.0 upgrade comes as a relief to millions of Kenyans who rely on the mobile money platform for daily transactions.
Launched in 2007, M-Pesa is the widely used money transfer service in Kenya. The platform currently serves over 32 million customers and generated over Sh139.9 billion in revenue as of 2024.
