Safaricom has set a bold new target to process 10,000 M-PESA transactions every single second by January 2026 to future-proof its dominance in the mobile money sector.
This ambitious goal is the driving force behind their newly launched developer platform, Daraja 3.0, which completely rebuilds the M-PESA engine using modern cloud technology to handle the massive growth of digital payments.
Just a few months ago, the system could handle about 4,500 transactions per second. Following a major core upgrade in September 2025, known as Fintech 2.0, that number jumped to 6,000. Now, the company plans to nearly double that capacity again in less than a year.
The leap to 10,000 TPS represents a near-doubling of capacity in less than a year, a necessity as high-frequency transactions from banks, betting, and e-commerce continue to increase.
The Daraja platform serves as the portal for over 105,000 external developers and 66,000 integrations, allowing them to plug M-PESA payment capabilities into websites, apps, and business systems. The upgrade to Daraja 3.0 addresses long-standing developer concerns regarding speed, documentation, and support.
Key features of the upgraded backbone include a move to a cloud-native architecture designed to eliminate downtime during maintenance and a redesigned testing environment that allows developers to simulate complex transaction flows before going live.
The new upgrade also brings new APIs designed to enable Internet of Things (IoT) devices to communicate and initiate payments autonomously.
Safaricom’s Chief Financial Services Officer, Esther Waititu, while speaking at the M-PESA Integrators forum event in Nairobi on Tuesday, November 25, 2025, said this upgrade is about more than just speed; it is a fundamental shift in how the company views its own platform.
“Daraja 3.0 is a gateway to the next frontier of fintech. By empowering developers with secure, scalable, and intuitive tools, we are unlocking new possibilities in digital finance and financial wellness.”
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