Safaricom Champions Financial Health Through M-PESA Ziidi Investment Platform

Some of the most interesting and dynamic innovations in mobile happen in Africa, South-East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. This is at odds with the extent of coverage that the US, China and the large European markets typically gain in industry reports. At CCS Insight, we’re always looking for ideas from one market that can apply to others, and inspiration can come from anywhere.

The new Ziidi Money Market Fund offering from Safaricom is an example of one of these interesting initiatives. It’s a strategic evolution of Safaricom’s financial services ecosystem, and combines new revenue streams for the mobile operator while driving savings and investments and promoting financial health in Kenya.

Having launched in March 2025 following a December announcement, the platform has already seen 4.3 million Kenyans opt in, and 1.2 million have made an investment. There’s no paperwork or additional checks needed because a user must have already set up a M-PESA account. This means a user can start investing as soon as they’ve opted in.

In under a year, Ziidi has over 13.2 billion Kenyan shillings ($101 million) in funds under management. Safaricom reports that its Ziidi offering is now in the top 10 money market funds in Kenya.

A Platform Built on Partnerships

Ziidi expands Safaricom’s existing financial offerings into investments. The role of Safaricom here is to provide a platform that connects its large user base with financial firms that manage the offering. Safaricom has partnered with two fund managers, Standard Investment Bank and ALA Capital, and Huawei is the technology partner powering the Ziidi investment platform. This strategic partnership aims to support asset managers with a platform that has scalability, stability and security as design goals. Also, it helps Safaricom to innovate and explore new growth areas.

Convenient Access to Investment

The minimum sum that a person needs to invest is small, just 100 shillings ($0.77), with zero transactional cost into and out of Ziidi. Joining Ziidi can be done directly from a phone. A user needs to have an M-PESA account and the same security PIN protects their Ziidi investment. Ziidi is accessed through the M-PESA app — which is now rapidly transforming into a “super app” — a hub for a range of services.

Ziidi pays interest daily and investors can monitor the rate in the M-PESA app. There is an account investment limit, but the normal M-PESA transaction rules apply: a per-transfer limit of 250,000 shillings ($1,930) and a daily cap of 500,000 shillings ($3,867). Safaricom has co-created the product based on the company’s understanding of its customers to ensure the product is relevant and attractive.

M-PESA Evolves beyond Payments into Broader Digital Financial Services

Since its launch in 2007, M-PESA has long been referenced as a beacon for mobile money services. However, in recent years few outside Kenya other than financial market specialists have been tracking its ongoing growth and success. Each day 18 million people use the M-PESA service for their everyday transactions. More than 5 million people use the M-PESA app monthly, and Safaricom has an ambitious target to gain more users on the platform as it pushes its digital inclusion agenda. The platform has evolved beyond payments to offer customers investment, saving, insurance and credit propositions that are all accessible from mobile devices including feature phones and smartphones.

Over the years, M-PESA has diversified its services beyond payments. Alongside the Ziidi wealth platform, it now provides access to a range of insurance products. Just as with banking, few Kenyans have insurance: estimates place adoption at just 2.3% of the population, highlighting the extent of the opportunity for Safaricom. In 2024, Safaricom was granted an intermediary licence that enabled the company to expand its financial services offerings to offer tailored insurance solutions to address the needs of new customer segments, especially underserved groups.

Safaricom also offers credit facilities via M-PESA. In other words, it allows its customers to go into a small level of debt. Fuliza is an overdraft service that allows M-PESA customers to complete transactions even when they do not have the full amount in their wallet, with a 1% access fee charged. Overdrafts paid off within three days are not charged interest. Any further payments go to pay off the debt.

For businesses M-PESA offers Taasi credit solutions with up to 250,000 shillings ($1,935) in loans as well as allowing them Fuliza overdraft facilities. This is especially attractive to micro, small and medium enterprises. It enables businesses to address short-term cashflow problems and so enables ongoing operations.

To further champion financial empowerment, Safaricom has partnered with the Kenyan government to disburse funds to the vulnerable and special interest groups through the Inua Jamii programme. Leveraging the vast M-PESA agent network, beneficiaries are able to access funds easily and conveniently and with dignity. Also, M-PESA has been a platform of choice for the public sector to disburse loans and grants to individuals and groups for economic growth as well as to distribute aid in disaster response.

Perhaps even more importantly, M-PESA highlights the central role that a telecom operator can play in a country’s economy. Just as many operators are now exploring sovereign AI, Safaricom is looking to ways in which it can help its home market to move forward economically. Savings build resilience into the economy. If an individual does not save and there is any interruption to their income, they risk bankruptcy, and that has wider effects on businesses and the country’s economy.

Safaricom is also a lending platform. But the operators’ financial partners, the banks, provide the loan and take the lending risk rather than Safaricom. It’s similar with the Ziidi investment offering — Safaricom works with the asset managers to invest the money deposited in the money market fund, and similarly they work with underwriters. In essence, Safaricom works with the financial services industry but uses Safaricom’s brand, and its mobile network quality, to connect prospective customers with financial firms.

Network APIs Are Best Built on Existing Business Relationships

There are a staggering number of partner integrations with M-PESA — more than 66,000. This is in part enabled by the Daraja API platform, which provides businesses and developers with the tools to embed payments and financial services directly into their applications. There are over 100,000 developers on the platform as Safaricom’s enterprise team works to integrate retail, e-commerce, agritech, logistics and financial services.

Safaricom is involved with the global push to offer APIs that span financial services, GSM and network interfaces. It has launched fraud-related APIs such as SIM-swap verification, as well as APIs for mobile data purchases, its loyalty point payment scheme and the internet of things (IoT) and telematics. But unlike many telecom operators, it already has relationships across the economy with small businesses, and the role Safaricom plays in mediating between financial services firms, consumers and small businesses means these kinds of network API have a ready audience. They power services ranging from e-commerce and agritech to IoT applications, making Safaricom a central player in Kenya’s digital economy.

Ziidi’s Rapid Initial Growth Is Built on a Strong Network Foundation

Safaricom was able to launch the innovative Ziidi offering because of the quality of its network and business support systems. Across Kenya, it claims 98% 4G population coverage and a total mobile customer base of over 50 million, and reports a 30-day active mobile customer base of 37.9 million, of which there are 1.3 million 5G customers. Its footprint is growing in fixed-line connections too, with 798,900 homes passed by fibre broadband.

The extent of its M-PESA offering, the range of businesses integrated, and the scale of its M-PESA end-user customer base is also important. With more customers and businesses on board, Safaricom benefits from economies of scale and network effects between its many partners and customers.

In 2025, over 24 years after the company’s launch and 18 years since M-PESA’s debut as a mobile payment service, Safaricom reported M-PESA had 37.9 million customers, 319,300 M-PESA agents and 2.4 million merchants across Kenya.

As Safaricom looks to new targets for its services, Ziidi is now a central part of its financial well-being offering. It places Safaricom back in the spotlight for mobile network suppliers and operators globally that are looking for ideas for new revenue streams and services.

However, success does not happen overnight. Operators that wish to emulate Safaricom must persevere with a strategy and look to the long term, and not yo-yo in their product strategy if fashions change, as many European operators have a history of doing.

A Blueprint for Global Operators

Ziidi is a compelling example of how telecom operators can evolve into platform businesses that drive financial inclusion, health, empowerment and innovation. Its metrics reflect the power of mobile technology, strategic partnerships and customer-centric propositions in creating services that are both impactful and commercially viable.

By democratizing wealth with Ziidi Safaricom is enabling all Kenyans to control, grow and manage their finances and wealth. Safaricom sees Ziidi as a global inspiration for other countries and organizations to look to when seeking to build more inclusive digital economies.

Below is an interview I recorded earlier this month with Safaricom’s Aliya Khanbhai on the Ziidi Money Market Fund.