Safaricom Ethiopia’s M-PESA mobile money platform has reached 5.2 million active users, reflecting a 258.5 per cent year-on-year surge in the quarter ended December 2025, driven by expanded interoperability and merchant adoption across the country.
The rapid growth follows M-PESA’s integration with EthSwitch in October 2025, connecting it to over 30 banks and digital wallets regulated by the National Bank of Ethiopia. This enables real-time wallet-to-bank transfers, bank-to-wallet payments and EthQR merchant transactions, expanding acceptance to more than 50,000 merchants nationwide.
Transaction values jumped 192 per cent to KSh364 million ($2.8 million) during the period, showing users shifting from peer-to-peer transfers to broader payments and commerce applications.
Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Peter Ndegwa said the expansion targets everyday economic use cases for merchants, MSMEs, enterprises and households while building toward profitability. “M-PESA expansion into more diverse everyday use cases is designed to support merchants, MSMEs, enterprises and households while maintaining a path toward profitability,” he stated.
