M-Pesa pivots toward SME lending as Safaricom's next growth act
Safaricom is repositioning M-Pesa's scale and distribution toward small and medium enterprise credit, targeting a lending gap that established banks and digital lenders have not fully addressed across East Africa. The strategic pivot places M-Pesa in direct competition with both traditional banks and fintech credit providers operating in the region.
M-Pesa Lending: the distribution was always the moat
Every bank in East Africa knows small businesses need credit. The reason they haven't fully served them isn't appetite — it's reach and data.
M-Pesa already has both. Millions of SMEs run their daily cash flow through the platform, which means Safaricom can see transaction patterns that no bank branch ever could.
The real question is whether that data advantage translates into better lending decisions, or just faster ones. Speed without accuracy is how you build a bad loan book at scale.
Sources · 1
- M-PESA’s next act begins where banks still fall short: lendingtechcabal.com · T1