On a quiet Tuesday, on March 6, 2007 to be exact, the world of payments changed forever. The big story in Kenya’s newspapers was in anticipation of the forthcoming launch of Business Daily, a new business-oriented newspaper, but on that day, mobile phone company Safaricom launched mobile money or M-PESA.
It was not the first such system in the world. At the time, there were money transfer services designed around enabling the working diaspora to send remittances back to relatives in their home countries.
But M-PESA was for local remittances, built for the social habits of Kenyans and focused on fund-raising and supporting one another. Tagged with the phrase, ‘Send Money Home’, it was a money-transfer service based on SMS. The first advertisement for the service showed an office manager sending money to his elderly parents, who were working on a small rural farm. It was simple to understand and an instant hit.
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Throughout Kenya’s history, its
