Book on M-Pesa launched in Kenya

Safaricom Chief Executive Officer Robert Collymore at a past function.

The first book that documents the  impact that M-PESA has had on the lives of users in Kenya  is now available in Kenya. The journey and impact of Safaricom’s money transfer service, M-Pesa, has now been documented in a book.

The book titled “Money, Real Quick- The story of M-PESA” has been co-authored by Tonny Omwansa, a lecturer at the university of Nairobi and Nicholas Sullivan, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Emerging Market Enterprises with funding from Rockefeller.

The book will be available to the public Amazon and Kindle.

Using case studies, the book chronicles the evolution of M-PESA from its original concept as a micro finance tool to a complex financial transactions platform that is leading Kenya’s cash-lite agenda.  The book features the accounts of those who worked on the service and how it grew to become the most successful mobile money solution in the world.

“M-PESA has earned its place as the most disruptive mobile money innovation and to date none other has come close. M-PESA has changed people’s lives in ways that could not have been envisaged by the people who created it and that is what we have captured in this book,” said Dr. Omwansa.

With 18.2 million customers, M-PESA is the world’s first and indeed, most successful mobile money transfer service. The platform moves Ksh 77.3 billion a month in peer to peer transactions. A further Ksh 9.9 billion is moved in person to business transactions while person to business transactions account for Ksh 7.6 billion a month.

Launched as a simple money transfer service, M-PESA has evolved to a full payment service which now includes payment services and the Lipa na M-PESA service which is targeted at SMEs. Since launch last year, Lipa na M-PESA has so far recruited 36, 749 merchants.

“M-PESA has put Kenya and Africa at the forefront of ICT innovation and is a reference for many other countries that plan to implement a mobile money payment platform. M-PESA is indeed one of the ways that we have been able to fulfil our aspiration to Transform Lives,” said Safaricom’s GM of Financial Services, Betty Mwangi-Thuo.

“By crystallising the M-PESA journey, this book will allow us to share with the rest of the world, this phenomenal innovation which has redefined the local financial landscape. M-PESA is a case study in the key roles that relevance and access have in resolving societal problems. Indeed, M-PESA has propelled Kenya to the pinnacle of global innovation and we as a country are proud of this landmark product,” said ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i.