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

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The stage is set for deployment of the long-awaited Safaricom’s new M-Pesa system, raising stakes in the ongoing battle between the mobile phone service provider and a slew of new entrants in the mobile money transfer business led by Equity Bank.

The new system to be launched next year and hosted locally is expected to help Safaricom maintain its grip on the lucrative mobile money market which saw Sh2 trillion shillings transacted in the country last year.

“We have been working on a new upgraded version of M-Pesa for three years now and have already undertaken software and hardware upgrades,” Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Collymore disclosed yesterday. “Right now we are in the testing phase and we are seeing very positive and promising results which will take about six months before we can launch,” he added.