When Safaricom was incubating what would later become M-PESA, the idea of partnering with fuel stations seemed improbable until Sitoyo Lopokoiyit got the call. At the time, Sitoyo was Business Advisor and Merchandising Manager at Caltex, under Chevron Kenya Limited.
“A lady named Susie Lonie reached out to use Caltex service stations as cash-in cash-out points for M-PESA agents,” Sitoyo recalls. “They assumed we owned and ran the stations, but in reality, we franchised them to dealers. That conversation sparked the aggregator model that M-PESA now uses globally.”
It was 2005, two years before M-PESA’s official launch, and Sitoyo was among the first to interact with the service, testing it at Caltex stations in Nairobi. He remembers walking with Michael Joseph, then CEO of Safaricom, to a fuel station to observe the first live transaction, an unassuming moment that would later redefine financial services across Africa.
From Fuel Stations to Financial Inclusion
“I like to compare M-PESA to breathing,” Sitoyo says. “When it works, you don’t notice it; when it doesn’t, everyone sees it. If M-PESA goes down for five minutes, regulators, media, even the president must know.”
Sitoyo’s early involvement gave him a front row seat to the challenges and opportunities of financial technology in Kenya. “I first interacted with M-PESA a year and a half before launch,” he recalls. “The people behind it, Michael Joseph, Nick Hughes, Paulin Vau, Susie Lonie, they had passion, commitment, and a focus on financial inclusion. That DNA is still alive today.”
He remembers the first big decision: creating M-PESA for All, including a Braille enabled watch for visually impaired users. “In Kenya, six million people are visually impaired. They had been excluded from financial services for too long. That innovation changed lives.”
Similarly, the platform enabled elderly Kenyans to receive government disbursements directly on their phones, eliminating months of waiting and costly travel to collect payments. “Small steps, massive impact,” Sitoyo notes.
Scaling Lipa na M-PESA
One of the pivotal moments in M PESA’s growth was the repositioning of Lipa na M-PESA. Originally a limited, cumbersome product operating on a dongle in select stores, it was nearly retired in 2012. Sitoyo, along with colleagues Boniface and Betty Mangi, then GM of Financial Services, argued to integrate it into the next generation M PESA platform.
They set an ambitious target: 100,000 merchants in six months. The team achieved it in just four. “It set up Lipa na M-PESA to become what it is today, a platform powering payments for millions of businesses in Kenya,” Sitoyo says.
Other innovations under his leadership include Fuliza, a service enabling overdraft lending, and Pochi la Biashara, allowing small businesses to separate personal and business funds. Each started as a modest internal project and has since become a household name.
The M-Shwari Revolution
M-Shwari, the mobile lending product launched on January 5, 2019, stands as one of M-PESA’s most successful innovations. “We didn’t launch it as a commercial product initially. Within two days, we had four million customers; in ten days, KSh 6 billion in lending had been processed. It was unprecedented.”
The product’s rapid adoption highlights a core principle of Sitoyo’s approach: understanding the real life financial challenges of everyday people and creating solutions that fit seamlessly into their lives.
M PESA Today: Scale, Revenue, and Innovation
Today, M-PESA serves 34 million Kenyans, has lifted financial inclusion from 26.7 percent in 2006 to 83.7 percent of adults, and generated KSh 161 billion, 1.25 billion dollars in revenue in the year to March 2025. It accounts for a significant portion of Safaricom’s total revenue of KSh 388 billion.
Safaricom is now overhauling the M-PESA platform in its largest upgrade in a decade. The Fintech 2.0 core is cloud native, AI powered, and designed to process up to 12,000 transactions per second, up from 4,500 today. The system includes real time fraud detection and self healing tools, improving uptime and enabling faster product rollout.
“This upgrade is a bold investment in the future of M-PESA,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said. “The platform not only scales to meet today’s demands but also anticipates tomorrow’s opportunities.”
Going Beyond Kenya
While M-PESA’s success is often associated with Kenya, its impact spans the continent. Over 60 million customers and 5 million businesses across eight African countries now use M PESA monthly, transacting over a million dollars daily.
Not every expansion was smooth. M PESA struggled in India, Romania, and South Africa, eventually pulling out. But markets like Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, and Ethiopia exceeded expectations, sometimes even outpacing Kenya in adoption and innovation.
Regulators have also played a key role. Sitoyo praises the Central Bank of Kenya and governors like Dr. Patrick Jog for creating an environment where fintech innovation can flourish. “Dr. Jog was a governor by day, fintech enthusiast by night,” he recalls, highlighting the importance of supportive leadership in scaling disruptive financial solutions.
Financial and Social Impact
Globally, over 200 countries have adopted mobile money, drawing inspiration from Kenya’s pioneering platform. Yet for Sitoyo, the real measure of success is human impact. From visually impaired users accessing money independently to elderly citizens receiving government payments digitally, M PESA has transformed the way ordinary people interact with financial services.
Looking Forward
Today, Sitoyo leads M-PESA Africa, coordinating product development, synchronizing operations across markets, and fostering innovation. Reflecting on the journey, he admits with a hint of awe: “We honestly didn’t know M PESA would become this successful. From a simple conversation at a fuel station to a pan African digital payments powerhouse, it has surpassed every expectation. And we’re just getting started.”