Kenya’s leading telecommunications provider Safaricom has announced the next evolutionary leap of its flagship mobile money platform: M-Pesa 3.0.
Powered by customized large language models fine-tuned on East African dialects, M-Pesa 3.0 allows users to initiate transfers, manage budgets, and request business credit lines using natural voice commands in Swahili, Sheng, and English.
The update introduces 'Smart Fuliza'—an AI credit scoring engine that evaluates localized cash flow data from small merchant kiosks (dukas) rather than traditional credit bureau reports, enabling millions of unbanked traders to unlock instant working capital.
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa noted: "M-Pesa changed how Africa banks. M-Pesa 3.0 will change how Africa creates wealth. AI is now deeply embedded to give every small shop owner a personal chief financial officer."