M for mobile and pesa is Swahili for money and it is a mobile phone based money transfer service, payments and micro-financing service. It is launched in 2007 by Vodafone Group plc and Safaricom. They are the largest mobile network operator in Kenya. It has since expanded to Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt, Afghanistan and South Africa. Meanwhile services in India, Romania, and Albania have been terminated due to low market uptake. M-Pesa allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money, pay for goods and services (Lipa na M-Pesa), access credit and savings. Basically, all service with a mobile device.

The service allows users to deposit money into an account stored on their cell phones and to send balances using PIN-secured SMS text messages to other users which is including sellers of goods and services and to redeem deposits for regular money. Users are charged a small fee for sending and withdrawing money using the service.

M-Pesa is a branchless banking service which mean M-Pesa customers can deposit and withdraw money from a network of agents that includes airtime resellers and retail outlets acting as banking agents.

M-Pesa has spread quickly and by 2010 had become the most successful mobile-phone-based financial service in the developing world. By 2012, a stock of about 17 million M-Pesa accounts had been registered in Kenya. By June 2016, a total of 7 million M-Pesa accounts have been opened in Tanzania by Vodacom. The service has been lauded for giving millions of people access to the formal financial system and for reducing crime in otherwise largely cash based societies.