The Next Wave: Kenya’s payments revolution cannot end with mobile money

Kenya has spent over two decades dining out on mobile money—and it has earned every right to.

Few technologies have influenced the global discourse on financial inclusion as profoundly as M-Pesa. What began as a simple peer-to-peer money transfer tool evolved into the central pillar of modern Kenyan commerce, transforming how citizens pay merchants, receive salaries, borrow, save, and manage capital. By July 2026, Kenya boasted 94.35 million registered mobile-money accounts supported by 575,400 agents, with KES 728.7 billion ($5.6…