Kenya has been called the world’s most cash-light economy — yet cash still dominates 8 out of 10 daily purchases. The full picture of how Kenyan shoppers pay in 2026 is more layered, more regional, and more commercially important than any single headline suggests.
Whether you run a supermarket in Nairobi, a hardware shop in Nakuru, or a restaurant in Mombasa, the payment methods you accept directly affect how many customers you can serve, and how much revenue you leave on the table.
Here’s what the data actually shows.
The 2026 Snapshot: Three Payment Worlds, One Market
Walk into a supermarket in Westlands and someone will tap a card. Hail a boda-boda in Eldoret and you’ll almost certainly hand over notes. Order from a kiosk in Kisumu and a phone will ping. Kenya’s payment landscape isn’t a single race with one winner — it’s three parallel systems, each dominant in its own lane.
The 2024 FinAccess Household Survey and Central Bank of Kenya data give us the clearest picture yet:
- 79.8% of daily expenses are still paid in cash
- 13.1% of daily expenses go through mobile money — almost entirely M-Pesa
- Card POS payments reached KES 297 billion in 2025, with 61.7 million transactions recorded
These aren’t competing forces so much as complementary layers. What has shifted dramatically over the past two years is where each layer is growing — and what that means for businesses still accepting only one method.
Cash: Still King — But Quietly Receding
Despite every mobile-money headline, cash remains Kenya’s dominant payment method by a wide margin. In open-air markets, matatus, roadside dukas, and informal service providers, cash isn’t just accepted — it’s expected.
The reason is structural. Most Kenyan retail still happens in informal settings — wayside kiosks, produce markets, jua kali workshops — where POS machines are absent and mobile money fees on micro-transactions can feel punishing on the seller’s side. A KES 50 transaction doesn’t easily absorb a transfer fee.
That said, the direction of travel is clear. Cash handled by mobile money agents — the proxy for money being “cashed out” from digital wallets — fell 5.3% in 2025 to KES 8.2 trillion, down from KES 8.7 trillion the previous year. Consumers are increasingly keeping money digital for longer before converting to cash.
Who still prefers cash? Rural consumers, informal sector workers, older demographics, and anyone transacting in low-value, high-frequency contexts: market traders, food vendors, transport workers, and household staff. It’s also the universal fallback when mobile networks go down.
For business owners: Refusing cash in Kenya in 2026 is still commercially risky, particularly outside major urban centres. The right question isn’t “should we accept cash?” — it’s “how do we reconcile cash alongside our other channels efficiently?”
M-Pesa: The Backbone of Digital Kenya
If cash is Kenya’s legacy system, M-Pesa is its operating system. Launched in 2007, Safaricom’s platform has grown into something far beyond a payment tool — it’s national infrastructure. And 2025 figures confirm its position is more entrenched than ever.
M-Pesa by the numbers (2025/2026):
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Monthly active users | 37.9 million |
| Mobile money market share | ~90% |
| Registered merchant tills | 2.4 million |
| Active agents | 319,000+ |
| Revenue contribution to Safaricom | 44% of total service revenues |
One figure stands out: M-Pesa now has more monthly active users (37.9 million) than the Safaricom mobile network has subscribers (37.5 million). Mobile money has officially outgrown the telco that built it.
M-Pesa generated KES 88.1 billion in just the first half of Safaricom’s FY26 — outperforming mobile data, voice calls, and SMS combined. That commercial weight explains why the platform continues to receive heavy infrastructure investment, including a new Fintech 2.0 platform capable of processing up to 8,000 transactions per second.
Looking ahead, Safaricom is rolling out NFC “Tap to Pay” capabilities via mobile phones, wallet sharing features, AI-powered fraud detection, and deeper merchant analytics. M-Pesa’s role in retail commerce is about to deepen significantly.
Who prefers M-Pesa? Almost everyone, but particularly urban and peri-urban consumers aged 18–54, SME owners, freelancers, and anyone purchasing from a business with a merchant till number. Any business without a Buy Goods or Paybill number is already turning away the majority of digitally active shoppers.
Card Payments: The Slow-Burn Contender
Cards in Kenya have never had a viral moment. No single government mandate, no behavioural shock that turned the country card-first. Instead, cards have done something more durable: grown steadily, year on year, almost without interruption.
The 2025 data from the Central Bank of Kenya tells the latest chapter:
- Card POS value: KES 297 billion (up from KES 291.9 billion in 2024)
- POS transaction volume: 61.7 million (up 4.1%)
- POS terminals deployed: 54,454 (up from 48,653 at end-2024)
Cards occupy a distinct lane in Kenya, they thrive where formality meets record-keeping. Supermarkets, fuel stations, hotel counters, pharmacies, mid-tier restaurants. The invisible hand nudging this growth: merchants typically absorb the interchange fee, making the payment feel costless to the buyer at point of swipe.
Visa holds approximately 56% of card brand share in Kenya, with Mastercard at 44%. Credit card penetration remains below 7% of the population — the growth is overwhelmingly in debit cards linked to bank accounts.
Who prefers cards? Formally employed Kenyans, business professionals, tourists, diaspora returnees, and consumers making mid-to-high-value purchases at organised retail outlets. Nairobi and Mombasa account for the majority of card transaction volume.
Side-by-Side: What Each Method Does Well
| 💵 Cash | 📱 M-Pesa | 💳 Card | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accepted across Kenya | ✅ Universal | ✅ Near-universal | ⚠️ Urban/formal only |
| Works offline | ✅ Always | ❌ Needs network | ❌ Needs network |
| Transaction record | ❌ None | ✅ SMS confirmation | ✅ Full digital record |
| Fee-free for merchant | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Tiered fees | ⚠️ Interchange rate |
| Theft/fraud risk | ❌ High (theft) | ⚠️ Low-moderate | ⚠️ Low (chip+PIN) |
| Works for e-commerce | ❌ No | ✅ Paybill/API | ✅ Online payments |
| Speed at point of sale | ⚠️ Counting time | ✅ Fast (till/QR) | ✅ Fast (tap/swipe) |
| Reconciliation burden | ❌ High (manual) | ⚠️ Medium | ✅ Low (auto) |
What’s Actually Shifting in 2026
1. High-value retail is migrating to cards
Mobile money agent data from 2025 revealed a telling pattern: total cash value handled by agents fell 5.3%, yet transaction volumes rose 2.5%. Average ticket sizes are shrinking. Consumers aren’t abandoning mobile money — they’re using it more frequently for smaller purchases, while larger transactions increasingly route through bank cards. Groceries above KES 5,000. Electronics. Fuel. Travel. These are becoming card-first categories in urban centres.
2. M-Pesa’s merchant network is the largest in Kenyan financial history
With 2.4 million merchant tills and over 319,000 active agents, M-Pesa’s physical footprint is larger than all other Kenyan financial institutions combined. Not being integrated is no longer a minor gap — it’s a structural competitive disadvantage.
3. Contactless and NFC are converging the two digital channels
Safaricom’s Fintech 2.0 platform is laying the groundwork for NFC-based tap-to-pay from mobile phones. Combined with the steady growth of contactless card terminals, the distinction between mobile money and card payments is about to blur. A customer in 2027 may tap their phone for a KES 2,000 restaurant bill — and it might route through either channel depending on their wallet settings.
How PawaPOS Helps You Accept All Three
The data makes one thing clear: Kenyan shoppers don’t have a single preferred payment method. They switch based on context, habit, and what’s convenient in the moment.
PawaPOS is built around that reality. Accept M-Pesa (Lipa Na Buy Goods and Paybill), Visa and Mastercard, and cash, all from one unified system. Every transaction, regardless of method, flows into the same dashboard for real-time reconciliation.
No more separate till records for cash. No more cross-referencing M-Pesa SMS confirmations with your sales log. No lost sales because a customer’s preferred method isn’t supported.
Every way
Kenyans pay,
in one place.
Stop turning away customers because of how they want to pay. PawaPOS unifies M-Pesa, card, and cash into a single checkout — with real-time reconciliation across all methods.
Explore PawaPOSM-Pesa Lipa Na
Buy Goods & Paybill — instant confirmation, zero manual reconciliation.
Visa & Mastercard POS
Tap, swipe or insert — all card payments logged automatically to your dashboard.
Cash with Float Tracking
Automatic float management — track every note in and out with full audit trail.
Unified Sales Dashboard
All payment methods in one view — no spreadsheets, no end-of-day guesswork.
Real-Time Confirmation
Every payment confirmed instantly — no delays, no disputes, no lost receipts.
Offline & Auto-Sync
Keep selling during outages. All transactions sync automatically when you reconnect.