04/08/2026
Airtel Kenya has escalated competition in the mobile money market with the launch of Airtel Money Bizna Wallet, a product targeting small businesses and directly challenging Safaricom's M-Pesa Pochi la Biashara.
The new wallet allows customers to pay merchants without incurring transaction charges, as Airtel seeks to attract more traders to its platform and chip away at Safaricom's dominance in the mobile payments market.
The launch has intensified a pricing battle between the country's two largest mobile money operators. In response, Safaricom lowered charges for payments to business tills, paybills and Pochi la Biashara, making transactions below Sh200 free, up from the previous threshold of Sh100.
The tariff changes, announced shortly before Airtel unveiled the Bizna Wallet, have fuelled speculation that Safaricom anticipated its rival's entry into the segment and moved to reinforce its position in a business that remains a key earnings driver.
Pochi la Biashara was introduced to give informal traders and micro-enterprises a low-cost digital payment solution without the requirements associated with conventional merchant tills. Airtel's Bizna Wallet mirrors that proposition, underscoring the growing battle for Kenya's millions of small merchants as mobile money operators compete on price and merchant acquisition.
