Safaricom Plc said its M-PESA Kadogo initiative—under which selected low-value transfers and payments are free—processed 17.1 billion zero-rated transactions in the 2025/2026 financial year, representing 58% of all activity on the mobile money platform. The company disclosed the figures following the announcement of its 2025/2026 financial results on May 7.
Under M-PESA Kadogo, person-to-person transfers of KES 100 and below and merchant payments of KES 200 and below are zero-rated, Safaricom said. The free transactions also include cash deposits at M-PESA agent outlets and airtime purchases through M-PESA, according to the company’s statement.
The latest disclosure provides a window into how Kenya’s biggest payments rail is increasingly being used for small, frequent transactions—an area that influences merchant acceptance, customer stickiness and the broader pace of digitising day-to-day commerce.
Safaricom said the decision to remove certain charges was initially made in the wake of the COVID-19 period, when charges on bank-to-M-PESA and transfers below KES 1,000 had been removed. “For the company, the effect of the removal of charges was a tripling in the number of transactions between 2020 and 2026,” Safaricom said.
Overall, Safaricom reported that M-PESA processed 46.4 billion transactions worth KES 41.7 trillion in the last financial year. The company said the volume and value of transactions underscore M-PESA’s central role in Kenya’s digital economy.
“With M-PESA Kadogo, our purpose is to make digital payments affordable for small-scale daily purchases and deepen financial inclusion. The removal of transaction fees has reduced friction and accelerated the usage of M-PESA across the country,” said Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO.
Safaricom said mobile financial services revenue rose 13.4% to KES 182.7 billion, attributing the performance to “strong double-digit growth across consumer payments, business payments and global payments.” Consumer payments were the largest contributor at KES 74.5 billion, followed by business payments at KES 56.7 billion, according to the company.
The company also highlighted growth in Pochi la Biashara, a product it positions for small traders and informal businesses. Safaricom said the customer base increased from 600,000 users in the 2024 financial year to 1.1 million the following year, before doubling to 2.2 million in the last financial year. Revenue from the product rose from KES 800 million in 2024 to KES 2.2 billion the following year, reaching KES 4 billion in the last financial year, Safaricom reported. The company added that Pochi la Biashara customers can invest overnight balances in Ziidi MMF.
For Kenya’s payments market, the scale of zero-rated micro-transactions points to intensifying competition around affordability and everyday merchant payments, particularly for low-income users and micro and small enterprises. The growth in Pochi la Biashara, alongside the continued expansion of Lipa na M-PESA usage at lower ticket sizes, also signals rising demand for tools that separate personal and business funds and provide basic value-added services such as short-term investment.
Looking ahead, Safaricom’s disclosures suggest that transaction volumes may continue shifting toward higher-frequency, lower-value payments as pricing and product design push for deeper usage in daily commerce. The company is expected to provide further detail on M-PESA’s segment performance and product roll-outs in subsequent investor updates tied to the 2025/2026 results.