M-Pesa is the leading mobile money service in Africa by transaction values. The platform, which boasts more than 15 years of experience in the industry, processed $366.7 billion in transactions in 2022.

M-Pesa Africa, a financial services subsidiary of pan-African telecom groups Vodacom and Safaricom, inaugurated a shared services operations center (SSOC) in Nairobi, Kenya, on Wednesday, March 22. The $2 million center will support M-Pesa's operations in Tanzania, DRC, Mozambique, Lesotho, Ghana, and future markets where the service will expand.

In its release announcing the center, Safaricom explained that the new operations center would “ oversee service operations and technical support including incident monitoring and resolution, managing platform changes and upgrades, deployment of new features and capacity management, and coordination with technical vendors.”

The move comes as M-Pesa is ramping up initiatives to expand coverage and improve the reach of its services amid accelerating adoption and demand for mobile financial services in Africa. According to the GSM Association, the number of active mobile money subscribers in Africa grew from 161 million to 184 million between 2020 and 2021. Over the same period, the value of transactions increased from $495 billion to $701.4 billion.

M-Pesa is currently transitioning to a cloud-based platform. The strategy ultimately aims to have "one M-Pesa," providing a single platform and unified operations across all its markets. By 2022, the service had more than 51 million users across seven countries on the continent. It is expected to enter Ethiopia soon.

“ Financial services remain a priority for us as we drive financial and digital inclusion on the continent. The launch of this Operations Centre is an important milestone and testament to our commitment to continue delivering innovative and cost-effective personal finance and business solutions that were previously difficult and cumbersome to acquire, further supporting us in connecting the next 100 million African customers,” said Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group.

Isaac K. Kassouwi