JOHANNESBURG - Kenyan mobile network operator 's money transfer service M-Pesa has been recognised as one of the top 10 most influential finance projects of the last 50 years by the Project Management Institute, the company said on Tuesday.
The 12-year old mobile phone based service was among more than 1,000 projects considered by a group of 400 leaders in the global project management community.
The project list identified efforts that changed the world, shaped lives and altered the DNA of the organisations and companies that launched them.
“This recognition further underlines M-Pesa’s commitment to our customers and its transformation to the country which has seen financial inclusion in Kenya grow by more than 50 percent in the last 12 years to stand at more than 82 percent today,” Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph said.
In addition to its contribution to the growth in financial inclusion in Kenya, M-Pesa has also been credited with financial transformation.
In 2017, economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Georgetown University found that the service lifted more than 195,000 Kenyan families from extreme poverty by empowering customers with the agency to receive money from any other phone user in the country.
M-Pesa impact extends through its ecosystem of more than 1,100 suppliers, 400 active dealers and more than 167,000 agents who benefict directly from the service.
It has contributed up to KES 75 billion (Kenyan shillings) in revenue to Safaricom and has grown to serve more than 26 million active customers.