Safaricom is not content with being just a telco and payments company but a tech giant with ambitions to become the operating system of kenya’s everyday life.
These was made clear at its launch of My OneApp at the Decode Summit in Nairobi, yesetrday. My OneApp merges the widely used M-PESA app with the struggling MySafaricom App into a single, AI-powered “super app” placing Safaricom at the center of Kenya’s emerging digital economy.
“This is not just about convergence,” said Chief Financial Services Officer Esther Waititu. “It’s about building intelligence into the customer experience.”
From Super App to Smart Infrastructure
Though this shift is not limited to Safaricom, but a broader global trend where telecom operators are transforming into technology platforms. Few have the advantage Safaricom holds via its deep financial rails through M-PESA platform and its unmatched agency distribution network across Kenya.
With over 6.5 million monthly active users and 80+ integrated mini-apps, My OneApp isn’t starting from zero. It is building on a mature ecosystem and layering intelligence on top.
The differentiator is artificial intelligence.
Rather than acting as a static interface, My OneApp learns user behavior by prioritizing frequent transactions, surfacing relevant services, and adapting in real time. Whether it’s recurring bill payments, lending habits, or investment activity, the app reorganizes itself around the user.
In effect, Safaricom is shifting from a menu-based experience to a predictive one.
The Quiet Power Play: Owning the Customer Journey
For years, M-PESA dominated payments but existed alongside separate apps, USSD flows, and fragmented digital services. My OneApp collapses those layers into a single interface bringing telecom, finance, and lifestyle into one continuous experience.
That matters.
Because in digital ecosystems, whoever owns the interface often owns the customer relationship.
Inside My OneApp, users can:
- Pay bills and manage airtime
- Access Fuliza credit
- Invest in money market funds via Ziidi
- Trade shares through CD Trader
- Run small businesses using Pochi la Biashara
- Purchase insurance products
- Engage with entertainment, gaming, and third-party services
This is no longer just fintech. It’s platform economics.
Scaling for a Digital Economy
Behind the user interface lies a less visible but critical transformation: infrastructure.
Safaricom says it has upgraded its systems to handle up to 6,000 transactions per second, a dramatic leap from roughly 100 transactions per second in earlier years. This shift to a multi-tenant, AI-first architecture reflects long-term thinking preparing not just for today’s usage, but for an ecosystem of developers and services yet to be built.
Through its Daraja API platform, which already supports more than 66,000 integrations, Safaricom is positioning itself as the backbone for innovation.
CEO Peter Ndegwa framed it simply, “Our role is to provide the rails. What gets built on top of them will define the future.”
From Financial Inclusion to Financial Power
M-PESA’s first chapter was about access. It helped move Kenya’s financial inclusion rate from 23% to 84% in under two decades becoming one of the most significant fintech success stories globally.
But access is no longer the endgame.
The next frontier is financial health, wealth creation, and resilience.
By embedding investments, credit, insurance, and business tools directly into a daily-use app, Safaricom is attempting to move users up the economic ladder and not just keep them transacting.
This is where My OneApp becomes more than a product launch but infrastructure shaping how millions save, borrow, invest, and build livelihoods.
The Competitive Landscape
Safaricom’s move also raises the stakes across Africa’s fintech and telecom sectors.
Super apps are not new globally. Asia has shown what’s possible with platforms like WeChat and Grab. But Africa is not a country and it’s ecosystem has remained relatively fragmented, with fintech startups, banks, and telcos each controlling different parts of the value chain.
My OneApp changes that dynamic.
By integrating services and opening its platform to developers, Safaricom is effectively daring competitors to match its breadth or find ways to plug into it.
The Bigger Bet
At its core, My OneApp is a bet on behavior.
That users will prefer a single intelligent platform over multiple apps.
That AI-driven personalization will deepen engagement.
And that the future of digital economies will be shaped not by standalone services but by ecosystems.
If Safaricom gets this right, it won’t just dominate payments. It could define how a generation experiences money, services, and digital life itself. And in doing so, it may quietly cement its position not just as Kenya’s leading telco but as its most important technology company.