Safaricom is quietly changing how its customers use digital products by moving everyday services into its flagship M-PESA app, raising questions about the future of its long-running self-care platform, the mySafaricom app.
This week, users began noticing that functions once exclusive to the mySafaricom app—such as airtime purchases and home internet management—appear inside the M-PESA super app.
The overlap looks minor, but the shift signals a deeper rethink of how Kenya’s largest telecom operator wants subscribers to interact with its digital ecosystem.
Launched in 2016, mySafaricom app was marketed as the all-purpose self-care app for anyone with a Safaricom line. Five years later, Safaricom introduced the M-PESA app, which the company described as a financial tool for payments, savings, loans, and global transactions.
mySafaricom has M-PESA services, but only in stripped-down form. The super app, by contrast, has evolved into a broader marketplace, hosting mini apps for ticket booking, shopping, insurance, and more.
It also carries PayPal withdrawals and GlobalPay, a Visa-backed virtual card that lets customers pay international merchants like Netflix.
Yet gaps remain. Subscribers can’t configure Safaricom’s 4G and 5G routers directly on the M-PESA super app; Home Fibre, for instance, is still accessible only via a mini app, leaving mySafaricom still relevant.
Safaricom has been experimenting internally for months to close these gaps, according to people familiar with the telco’s operations.
The company is now seeking customer feedback on the updated M-PESA app’s design, look, and navigation. This step may test whether users are ready to manage everything—from internet and airtime to loans and global payments—inside one platform.
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For now, Safaricom hasn’t said whether it plans to retire the mySafaricom app. Another complication is that the two apps are developed by separate teams.
The telco did not respond to a request for comment.
M-PESA remains Safaricom’s biggest growth driver. The platform now commands over 35 million active users in Kenya, with millions relying on the M-PESA app for daily transactions.
In the year to March 2025, the app processed KES 2.3 trillion ($17.9 billion), pushing M-PESA’s revenue up more than 15.2% to KES 161.1 billion ($1.26 billion).
That lift, combined with rising spend per user at KES 395.22 ($3.10), means the service now brings in nearly half of Safaricom’s Kenyan revenue, well ahead of the shrinking voice and SMS business it once depended on.
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