NAIROBI, Kenya-Safaricom has announced the largest upgrade to its mobile money platform since 2015, marking a significant step in the evolution of M-PESA as it continues to drive financial inclusion and digital transformation across Africa.
The overhaul introduces Fintech 2.0, a next-generation core platform built to boost resilience, scalability, and artificial intelligence-powered innovation.
Safaricom says the transformation will position M-PESA to meet surging demand while preparing for new opportunities in the digital economy.
“This upgrade is a bold investment in the future of M-PESA and reaffirmation of our commitment to innovation, resilience and customer trust. By moving to Fintech 2.0, we are unlocking a platform that not only scales to meet today’s demands but also anticipates tomorrow’s opportunities,” said Safaricom Group CEO Peter Ndegwa.
With the upgrade, M-PESA’s capacity will rise from handling 4,500 transactions per second to 6,000, with the ability to scale up to 12,000 as usage grows.
The system will also deploy an active-active architecture across multiple hosting sites, designed to guarantee higher resilience and minimize service interruptions.
Another key feature is the integration of advanced artificial intelligence tools that will enhance fraud detection, enable self-healing, and power real-time monitoring.
Its cloud-native infrastructure is expected to deliver faster performance, seamless scalability, and quicker deployment of new products.
Launched in 2007, M-PESA has evolved from a simple peer-to-peer money transfer service into Africa’s largest fintech ecosystem, supporting payments, savings, credit, insurance, remittances, and e-commerce.
Safaricom says the new platform will sustain that growth trajectory, allowing it to provide smarter, faster, and more secure services to both individual users and businesses.
The development comes at a time when demand for digital financial services is expanding rapidly, driven by mobile penetration, increased adoption of online transactions, and the continent’s youthful population.
The telco maintains the upgrade will strengthen M-PESA’s position as a regional leader in financial technology while enabling Safaricom to compete more aggressively with new entrants in the digital payments space.
