Pesalink’s Next Move Points to a Shift in Kenya’s Payments System

Kenya’s payments story has long been told through a single number: more than 90% of adults are financially included. It is a clean statistic, widely cited, and increasingly insufficient.

Pesalink CEO Gituku Kirika outlined a set of product rollouts that, taken together, suggest the country is entering a second phase. The system that delivered access is now being reworked to deliver usability.

The announcements themselves are technical. Their implications are not.

A system built on accounts is being rebuilt around identity

The most consequential shift is the move toward an alias-based payment layer—what Pesalink is positioning as a universal identifier system.

Instead of sending money using bank details—branch codes, account numbers, and long forms—users will be able to transact using:

• Phone numbers
• National ID
• Email (in later phases)

It is a quiet redesign of the payment experience. The complexity that has historically sat with the user is being pushed down into the infrastructure.

In practical terms, this moves Kenya from account-based routing to identity-based routing. It is the same conceptual leap that underpins systems like India’s UPI, where the question is no longer where is your money held, but who are you sending it to.

For a country where bank usage still lags behind access, that distinction matters.

The divide between banks and mobile money is being engineered out

Pesalink also signaled deeper integration with telecom operators, expanding beyond its banking roots. One telco is already connected; others are expected to follow.

Alongside this, the platform is rolling out person-to-merchant payments that work across ecosystems. A user with funds in a bank account should be able to pay a merchant who primarily operates on mobile money—and vice versa—without switching channels.

For years, Kenya’s payments ecosystem has functioned as parallel systems: interoperable in parts, but still defined by institutional boundaries. This begins to dissolve that structure.

The intended outcome is simple enough to describe: A user standing at a checkout point should not need to think about where their money sits.

The agent network is being reorganized, not expanded

If mobile money built its reach through agents, the next phase is about how those agents are used.

Pesalink is introducing agent interoperability, allowing customers to transact at any agent regardless of provider. Banks, in turn, will be able to direct users to the nearest available agent, not just those within their own network.

This addresses a structural inefficiency that has persisted for years. In many parts of the country, a single retail location operates as an agent for multiple providers, each functioning as a closed loop.

The result is duplication without real expansion.

Opening up these networks does not add new infrastructure. It redistributes access across what already exists.

The friction in bank transfers is being targeted directly

Part of the redesign is less visible but no less consequential: simplifying how bank transfers work.

The current system still reflects legacy architecture. Paying via bank often requires multiple fields—bank name, branch, account number, sometimes even SWIFT codes—while mobile money reduced this to a single input.

Pesalink’s approach is to standardize and compress that process, aligning it with the simplicity users have come to expect elsewhere.

It is not just a usability fix. It is an attempt to bring bank-based transactions into everyday behavior.

Cost remains the constraint that shapes everything else

Running through the discussion was a point that undercuts the inclusion narrative: usage is still uneven.

Despite near-universal access, only about half of Kenyans actively use mobile money services in a sustained way. Bank account utilization is lower still.

Cost sits at the center of that gap.

Transaction fees—often averaging around KES 28—are high relative to comparable systems in markets like India and Brazil, where person-to-person transfers are effectively free. Regulators have already set targets to bring those costs down significantly over the next few years.

Lowering cost is not treated as incremental improvement. It is a condition for deeper participation.

When digital transactions feel expensive or unpredictable, users revert to alternatives that may appear less efficient but are more legible—cash, agents, or over-the-counter services.

What is being built is not a product, but a layer

Taken individually, the announcements read like feature updates: new integrations, new payment options, a cleaner interface.

Taken together, they describe something else—a shift in where the system sits.

Pesalink is positioning itself less as a service and more as shared infrastructure: a rail that connects banks, telecoms, agents, and merchants without requiring each pair of participants to negotiate and integrate independently.

This moves the ecosystem away from bilateral interoperability and toward a network model, where participation is standardized and interaction is assumed.

It is a familiar trajectory in payments globally. What is notable is how directly it is now being pursued in Kenya.

The inclusion story is being rewritten in place

For more than a decade, Kenya’s fintech narrative has been defined by access. Accounts were opened, wallets were created, and the system scaled quickly.

What this moment reflects is a recalibration.

Access is no longer the primary constraint. The system exists. The question is whether it is:

• Affordable enough to use regularly
• Simple enough to navigate without friction
• Open enough to move across institutions
• Trusted enough to rely on

The announcements from Pesalink do not resolve those questions. They indicate where the system is being adjusted in response.

The direction is clear.

Kenya is no longer building ways to get people into the financial system. It is working out how to make that system usable once they are there.

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