NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The move comes out of Safaricom’s global expansion efforts to recover from its first profit decline in 10 years, according to the report.

“M-Pesa accounts for about a third of Safaricom’s revenue, and East Africa’s largest company sees the financial-technology product as key to future growth,” the report stated. “The carrier already has partnerships with a unit of China’s Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. and PayPal Holdings Inc.”