Left Behind: The Socioeconomic Barriers to Last-Mile Mobile Money Access in Kenya

Recognizing an opportunity to address this challenge, Kenya’s leading mobile network operator, Safaricom, launched M-PESA in 2007. Billed as the world’s first mobile money service, it affords users the opportunity to transact, save money and get credit using their mobile phone. Since its launch, it has grown to over 40 million users and was a major driver in the two-fold increase in financial inclusion across the country. By unlocking the benefits of financial services to those users, M-PESA was found to have lifted 194,000 households, or 2 per cent of Kenyan households, out of poverty as of 2016 with larger benefits accruing toward female-headed households. Many people, however, remain unreached by M-PESA (and mobile money more broadly). This research examined who those people are and what traits they share in common, and aims to inform policy-makers on how to ensure they do not continue falling behind.