{"id":466,"date":"2026-10-04T13:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/?p=466"},"modified":"2026-10-04T13:26:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T13:26:18","slug":"airtel-money-takes-on-m-pesa-in-kenyas-growing-mobile-payments-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/?p=466","title":{"rendered":"Airtel Money\u00a0Takes on M-Pesa in Kenya\u2019s\u00a0Growing Mobile Payments\u00a0Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NAIROBI, Kenya <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0Kenya\u2019s mobile-money\u00a0market is entering\u00a0a more competitive\u00a0phase as Airtel\u00a0Money steps\u00a0up its challenge\u00a0to Safaricom\u2019s M-Pesa with lower\u00a0transaction fees and\u00a0new products targeting\u00a0small businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safaricom remains the dominant player, controlling 88.8 percent of Kenya\u2019s mobile-money subscriptions<\/strong> as of June 2026, compared with Airtel Money\u2019s 11.1 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Airtel has\u00a0significantly increased\u00a0its market share\u00a0over the past\u00a0three years, rising\u00a0from just 2.8\u00a0percent in June\u00a02023.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airtel Money recently introduced Bizna Wallet<\/strong>, aimed at small traders, and offered the service without transaction fees as it seeks to attract merchants away from established competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has also reduced charges on several other transactions, including payments, bank transfers and transfers between mobile-money networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safaricom has responded by reducing some M-Pesa charges and increasing the threshold for fee-free transactions on its Pochi la Biashara service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competition is\u00a0significant because mobile\u00a0money is a\u00a0major source of\u00a0revenue for Safaricom.\u00a0In the financial\u00a0year ended March\u00a02026, M-Pesa\u00a0revenue in Kenya\u00a0rose\u00a013.4 percent to\u00a0Sh182.7 billion<\/strong>, accounting for 45.6\u00a0percent of Safaricom’s\u00a0Kenyan revenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For consumers and small businesses, the emerging price competition could mean lower transaction costs and more choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the two telecommunications companies, however, the battle is increasingly about more than mobile transfers. Digital payments, merchant services, banking partnerships and financial technology are becoming key battlegrounds in Kenya\u2019s rapidly evolving digital economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Source: Business Daily Africa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

photo: Courtesy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya \u00a0Kenya\u2019s mobile-money\u00a0market is entering\u00a0a more competitive\u00a0phase as Airtel\u00a0Money steps\u00a0up its challenge\u00a0to Safaricom\u2019s M-Pesa with lower\u00a0transaction fees and\u00a0new products targeting\u00a0small businesses. Safaricom remains the dominant player, controlling 88.8 percent of Kenya\u2019s mobile-money subscriptions as of June 2026, compared with Airtel Money\u2019s 11.1 percent. But Airtel has\u00a0significantly increased\u00a0its market share\u00a0over the past\u00a0three years, rising\u00a0from just 2.8\u00a0percent in June\u00a02023.\u00a0 Airtel Money recently introduced Bizna Wallet, aimed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tangazadital.co.ke\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}