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

For the past decade, Kenya has hogged global limelight thanks to mobile money transfer service, M-Pesa. It is because of this service that the country has earned unassailable reputation as a leader in innovation not only in the region, but worldwide.

Given its novelty, M-Pesa has been raking in billions of shillings in revenue for Safaricom, the most profitable firm in East Africa. And now commercial banks reckon it is time they had a piece of this sweet pie.

The lenders plan to launch a service that will eat into M-Pesa’s market share. The Real Time Interbank Switch, or the Switch, is scheduled to be launched in November by the Kenya Bankers Association.

“It will create “an interbank mechanism to enable interoperability across KBA members for all retail payment streams,” KBA chief executive Habil Olaka told Smart Company.