---
title: "Which developing nation leads on mobile payments? Kenya"
description: "A majority of Kenyans make or receive payments using cell phones."
date: "2014-02-18"
authors:
  - name: "Jacob Poushter"
    job_title: "Associate Director, Global Attitudes Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jacob-poushter/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/02/18/which-developing-nation-leads-on-mobile-payments-kenya/"
categories:
  - "Mobile"
---

# Which developing nation leads on mobile payments? Kenya

Kenya is on the forefront of a banking revolution; a majority of Kenyans (56%) make or receive payments using cell phones. The number of Kenyans engaged in this activity is higher than any of the other 24 countries surveyed [in our spring 2013 survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/02/13/emerging-nations-embrace-internet-mobile-technology/). In fact, only in neighboring Uganda do even a plurality of people say they use their cell phones for mobile banking transactions.

[![KenyaMobile](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/02/KenyaMobile.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/02/KenyaMobile.png)

Kenya’s embrace of mobile money management appears to surpass the U.S. Although we have not polled specifically about mobile payments, our [most recent figures show](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/08/07/51-of-u-s-adults-bank-online/) that 35% of American cell owners do mobile banking and 61% of online Americans do banking online.

The remarkable rise of mobile money transfer in Kenya is due in part to something called the M-Pesa service, which was introduced in Kenya in 2007 by Vodaphone and its affiliate Safaricom. M-Pesa (which literally means “mobile money”) allows users to transfer payments of up to $500 from mobile phones with a small, flat, per-transaction fee. It is now [estimated that](http://www.cck.go.ke/resc/downloads/Q4_201213_STATISTICS_final_25th_oct_2013.pdf) 24.8 million subscribers use mobile money transfer services, like M-PESA, in Kenya. And as the World Banks [notes](http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,contentMDK:22551641~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:258644,00.html), “the affordability of the service has been key in opening the door to formal financial services for Kenya’s poor.”

[![KenyaMobileMoney](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/02/KenyaMobileMoney.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2014/02/KenyaMobileMoney.png)