Kenya runs one of the busiest mobile money markets in the world. In the year to March 2026, M-PESA alone moved about KSh41.7 trillion across roughly 46 billion transactions, and more than three million merchants now take payments on it.
Yet if you want to send money from M-PESA to an Airtel Money line, to a bank account, or to a supplier in Kampala, you are still crossing separate rails. Each crossing has its own fee, its own limits and, often, its own app.
Why moving money between networks is still awkward
The Central Bank of Kenya has said it plainly: the market "lacks a centralized switching mechanism". In October 2024 the CBK announced a Fast Payment System, an instant switch that every bank, mobile money provider and payment company would plug into. When it arrives, sending from any account to any other should be as simple as sending within one network. At the time of writing, no launch date has been confirmed.
Some groundwork is already in place. The Kenya Quick Response Code standard (KE-QR), issued in 2023, means a single merchant QR code can be paid from a bank app, a wallet or another processor. Per-transaction limits are also clear: M-PESA allows up to KSh250,000 per transaction and KSh500,000 a day.
What this means for a business today
- Customers pay you on whichever network they have, so your money lands in several places.
- Moving it to where you need it (a bank, a supplier, payroll) costs fees at each hop.
- Reconciling who paid what, across rails, is manual work.
How Sharet approaches it
Sharet keeps one ledger across M-PESA, MTN, Airtel, Vodacom and banks. Money held in Sharet moves between Sharet wallets for free, and when you pay someone outside Sharet they receive it on their own network: they never need to sign up. Merchants collect from every rail into one wallet and settle out when they choose.
We will welcome a national instant switch when it launches; a shared switch makes every provider better. Until then, one wallet over many rails is the most direct way to stop paying for each hop.
Want to see it on your own numbers? Start with the merchant page or talk to us.
Sources
- People Daily: M-PESA processes KSh41.7 trillion in a year
- TechTrendsKE: M-PESA merchant network, FY2026 (28 Oct 2026)
- TechCabal: Kenya's central bank plans an instant payment system (18 Oct 2024)
- Capital FM: CBK unveils QR code standard
- Safaricom: M-PESA transaction limits raised to KSh250,000
Cover photo: Nairobi skyline, Unsplash