How Safaricom Accidentally Became Kenya’s Most Powerful “Bank” Through M-PESA
Kenya’s telecom giant Safaricom has become an unlikely cornerstone of the country’s financial system. According to its 2025 sustainability report, a document designed to showcase corporate responsibility, the company now plays a role that extends far beyond telecommunications. Through M-PESA, its mobile money platform launched in 2007, Safaricom facilitates most of Kenya’s daily transactions—becoming, in essence, the nation’s unofficial central payment network. With over 90% market share in mobile money, the platform is where millions of Kenyans send, borrow, and store their funds.
But with this dominance comes an uncomfortable truth: Safaricom is now grappling with the responsibilities of a financial institution it never intended to be. The 2025 report reveals that 113 employees were dismissed for fraud, and the company has begun deploying artificial intelligence (AI) to detect suspicious money flows, especially through betting platforms. These measures, while rigorous, underscore the scale of Safaricom’s transformation—from a telecom service provider to a quasi-bank managing complex financial risks and regulatory expectations.
The company’s openness about internal misconduct marks a shift in Kenya’s corporate culture. While traditional banks like KCB and Equity Bank have faced similar issues, few have made such disclosures public. Safaricom’s decision to confront the problem head-on and even refer seven fraud cases to the police signals a new era of corporate transparency. It is not merely protecting its brand—it’s setting a precedent for accountability in an industry where silence was once the norm.
The sustainability report also exposes the growing nexus between digital betting and money laundering. Safaricom’s systems detected patterns of illicit funds cycling through betting wallets—where criminals “clean” dirty money by placing small bets and withdrawing the proceeds as legitimate winnings. Though Safaricom does not operate these betting companies, it processes their payments, forcing it to adopt bank-level compliance tools such as customer screening, beneficial ownership checks, and real-time data analysis. The telco now performs duties typically reserved for financial regulators, further blurring the line between telecom and banking.
Ultimately, Safaricom’s story is one of unintended evolution. In building a network that connected people through mobile payments, it also built the financial backbone of Kenya’s economy, handling transactions worth nearly half the nation’s GDP each year. What began as a simple innovation for money transfers has become a critical national utility—one too vital to fail, yet too large to operate without oversight. As Safaricom continues to balance innovation with regulation, it stands as a reminder that sometimes, the biggest revolutions in finance are not planned—they’re built by accident.
source: Techcabal