The US Ambassador to Kenya Meg Whitman has termed Kenya’s mobile money transfer M-pesa as the most impressive technology.
Speaking during the US-Africa business round table in San Francisco, Whitman said the invention of M-pesa is proof that Kenya’s innovators have the capacity and capability to solve global problems.
She noted that invented in 2007, M-pesa had by 2010 become the largest mobile money network in the world with annual revenues of over USD 1 billion and is an open EPI with over 60,000 developers today.
“It solved one of the biggest problems in mobile money; mobile, secure, locust payments,” Whitman said on Friday.
“M-pesais extraordinary. M-pesa alone can demonstrate the brilliant business minds that work in Kenya that are devising African solutions to global problems,” Whitman added.
The ambassador said that with more than 50 million customers in its presence in seven countries, M-pesa is involved in 70 per cent of Kenya’s transactions and powers over five million businesses.
“Catch this, 59 per cent of Kenya’s annual GDP flows through MPESA, 70 per cent of Tanzania’s GDP flows through M-pesa, I know I little bit about this business.”
M-pesa is the most preferred means of payment for many Kenyans due to its convenience even for those in remote areas.
Kenyans can conveniently pay for various services wherever they are through their phone without the worry of walking around with cash.
Just last month, Uber and Safaricom partnered to ease payment of trips by riders across Kenya through M-pesa.
This followed an earlier deal between the telco and UberEats allowing consumers to pay for deliveries through M-pesa while riders also receive their earnings through the same platform.
The new partnership seeks to enable drivers who lack bank accounts to receive weekly payments with ease.
