TendePay Gets CBK Approval to Operate E-Wallet in Kenya

TendePay has received approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to operate an e-wallet in Kenya, adding a new regulated payments capability to the fintech’s platform.

The development comes about 20 months after TendePay received its Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence from CBK in January 2025. TendePay announced its PSP authorization in February 2025, saying the licence allowed it to process and settle payments on behalf of merchants.

“We are excited to receive this authorisation, which enables us to expand our payment solutions across Kenya,” Abel Masai, TendePay’s chief executive officer, said at the time.

The company’s existing platform provides businesses with payment and financial-management tools, including petty-cash management, bulk payments, payroll processing, supplier payments, collections and reconciliations.

TendePay also supports one-off and recurring payments through M-Pesa, bank transfers and Paybill integrations. Its platform allows businesses to monitor incoming and outgoing payments across M-Pesa and banks, manage different budget lines and assign users to specific wallets, with approval levels and transaction limits for different users.

Founded in 2020 and initially focused on helping businesses manage petty cash before expanding into broader spend-management and payments services, the firm has grown into what it is today due to market needs.

In September 2025, TendePay partnered with Pesalink to enable businesses to make single and bulk payments of up to KSh999,999 instantly across Kenyan banks. The integration also supports automatic reconciliation of incoming bank payments. The Pesalink partnership marked its evolution from a petty-cash management tool into a broader spend-management platform.

“This partnership reflects our evolution into a full spend management platform,” Masai said at the time. “With Pesalink’s trusted infrastructure, we are giving businesses a reliable, secure, and affordable tool to manage every payment, whether large or small, at any time.”

The CBK authorized Payment Service Provider under Kenya’s National Payment System framework now adds the e-wallet capability to its existing regulatory status as a CBK-licensed PSP.