Podcasts
M-Pesa: How a Text Message Changed Africa
The mobile money origin story
Kwame Boateng 20 min 4.9Jan 28, 2026
About this story
In 2007, Safaricom launched a simple SMS-based service to let people send money by phone. Nobody predicted it would become the backbone of Kenya's economy, banking half the country's unbanked population within a decade.
Mobile MoneyFintechKenya
Transcript preview
Host: In 2007, almost no Kenyan outside Nairobi had a bank account. Today, most do — sort of.
Host: M-Pesa let anyone with a basic phone send money as easily as sending a text.
Host: Within three years, it was processing more transactions than Western Union globally.
Host: It didn't just change banking — it changed how an entire economy moves money.
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Author
KW
Kwame Boateng
Ghana
Economist and podcaster covering entrepreneurship across the continent.
Languages available
🌍 English🇰🇪 Swahili