Payment methods in Kenya

Visa is the world's largest card network, enabling credit, debit and prepaid card payments online, in-store and at ATMs across virtually every market. In the listed countries Visa is a core internationally accepted scheme alongside local methods.

Mastercard is a leading global card network supporting credit, debit and prepaid card payments online, in-store and at ATMs worldwide. In the listed countries it is a core internationally accepted scheme.

Airtel Money is Kenya's second-largest mobile money provider, holding approximately 6.6% market share as of 2024 (up from 2.8%). It operates similarly to M-Pesa and enables money transfers, bill payments, and merchant payments via USSD and the Airtel Money app.

M-Pesa is Kenya's transformative mobile money service, launched by Safaricom in 2007. It enables users to send money, pay bills, buy goods, and access financial services via a basic mobile phone — no smartphone or bank account required. With over 30 million active users and 93% market share in Kenyan mobile money, M-Pesa is the default payment method for a large portion of the population and is deeply integrated into e-commerce via the Daraja API and third-party gateways like Flutterwave and Pesapal.

UnionPay is the world's largest card network by issued cards, and has deep penetration in Hong Kong alongside China's broader payment ecosystem. UnionPay SecurePay is the online payment authentication service enabling UnionPay cardholders to transact securely at e-commerce merchants globally. It is widely accepted by both local and international merchants serving Hong Kong consumers.

Flutterwave and Paystack are pan-African payment infrastructure providers that enable Kenyan merchants to accept M-Pesa, cards, and bank transfers through developer-friendly APIs. Both platforms are used heavily by startups and growing e-commerce businesses across Kenya and the wider African continent.

Pesapal is an East African payment gateway that aggregates multiple payment methods — including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Visa, and Mastercard — into a single checkout for online merchants. It is widely used by Kenyan and East African e-commerce businesses to accept diverse payment types from a single integration.

Chipper Cash is a pan-African wallet for free cross-border transfers, bill pay, virtual cards and online payments across seven markets. Operator: Chipper Technologies Inc. Est. users: 7M+ users (2024).

Tingg is Cellulant's consumer payments app and checkout that aggregates mobile money, cards and bank rails across eight African markets. Operator: Cellulant Corporation. Est. users: Large pan-African user base (2024).

EcobankPay (via the Ecobank Mobile app) offers QR-based scan-to-pay and account payments across 33 African countries. Operator: Ecobank Transnational Inc. Est. users: 4M+ app users (multi-country).

Equitel is Equity Bank's MVNO-based mobile money service linking the SIM directly to a bank account for payments and transfers. Operator: Finserve Africa (Equity Group). Est. users: ~1.8M+ subscribers (2024, est.).

JumiaPay is the embedded wallet and checkout solution for the Jumia marketplace and bill payments across several African markets. Operator: Jumia Technologies AG. Est. users: ~5.4M Jumia active customers (2024).

Pesalink is Kenya's real-time interbank A2A payment rail enabling instant bank-to-bank transfers and online payments across nearly all Kenyan banks. Operator: Integrated Payment Services Ltd (KBA). Est. users: 3M+ users (2024).