Safaricom’s M-Pesa Pochi la Biashara wallet has quietly overtaken business tills as the preferred payment solution for Kenya’s rapidly growing community of small-scale traders, new figures confirm.
By March 2026, the Pochi platform had onboarded 2.1 million merchants — more than double the 1.1 million recorded just a year earlier. Business tills, by contrast, grew at a far more modest pace over the same period, reaching only one million users. The widening gap between the two products illustrates just how swiftly informal traders are embracing mobile-first financial tools as their primary business infrastructure.
The numbers reflect a reality that many Nairobi food vendors, roadside kiosk operators, and boda boda riders already know from lived experience. Pochi was built specifically to fix frustrations that plague small traders daily — foremost among them the habit of mixing personal and business money inside a single M-Pesa account, which makes it nearly impossible to track profits accurately. Payment reversals, a persistent headache for merchants everywhere from Gikomba to Nakuru’s markets, are also blocked on the platform. “The product was designed to address key pain points for merchants identified through Safaricom’s own customer feedback, such as mixing personal and business funds and frustrations around customer payment reversals,” the GSMA noted in its assessment of the service.
Beyond those foundational fixes, Pochi bundles several features that speak directly to the micro-entrepreneur segment. Merchants get dual accounts that keep business and personal money separate, the ability to sell airtime directly to customers, mini-statements, and straightforward agent withdrawal options. Crucially, users can also access Taasi working capital loans through the platform — a lifeline for traders who would otherwise struggle to qualify for formal credit. Signup requires no new SIM card, removing a barrier that has historically slowed adoption of business tills, which demand dedicated hardware.
Despite its commanding lead in user numbers, Pochi still lags behind business tills in absolute revenue. During the twelve months ending March 2026, business tills generated Sh9.3 billion compared to Sh4 billion from Pochi. The gap is largely a reflection of the higher transaction values typically processed through till accounts, which are more common among established businesses handling larger volumes.
Yet Pochi’s growth curve tells a more revealing story about where mobile commerce in Kenya is heading. The wallet posted 86 percent year-on-year revenue growth over that same period, dwarfing the 21.7 percent recorded by business tills. At that rate of expansion, the revenue gap between the two products could narrow considerably sooner than expected.
For Safaricom, Pochi’s rise is proof that Kenya’s informal economy is staking out its own space in the digital financial system. The mama mboga, the bodaboda operator, and the kiosk owner at the end of your street may yet prove to be the architects of the country’s next mobile money revolution.
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