Kenyans will be able to buy and sell shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) directly from their M-Pesa mobile money wallets starting next month, as the bourse and telecoms firm Safaricom seek to revive retail investor participation.
The new platform, known as Ziidi Trader, is completing a pilot phase and will allow users to trade listed shares without opening a traditional brokerage account. Transactions will be settled instantly through M-Pesa, Kenya’s dominant mobile payments system.
Under the model, investors will trade through an omnibus account structure, in which funds from multiple users are pooled and managed by licensed brokers operating in the background. Users will be able to place buy and sell orders via their phones, with money deducted from or credited to their M-Pesa wallets.
The move comes as the NSE struggles to attract new retail investors despite a rebound in market valuations. Between 2023 and 2025, the number of active investors grew by just 0.2%, adding 2,621 accounts to reach about 1.3 million, according to exchange data. That compares with more than 2 million active investors recorded in September 2022.
The NSE briefly crossed a KES 3 trillion ($23bn) market capitalisation in November 2024, but the rally did not translate into higher participation.
NSE Chief Executive Frank Mwiti has said procedural complexity and low financial literacy have continued to deter individual investors, even as equities have delivered stronger long-term returns than bank deposits and government bonds.
Kenya has previously used mobile platforms to widen access to capital markets. In 2017, it introduced mobile bond trading, and the Central Bank of Kenya’s DhowCSD system now allows investors to buy treasury bills and bonds via M-Pesa for transactions of up to KES 250,000.
In December 2024, Safaricom and the NSE launched the Ziidi Money Market Fund, which by September 2025 had attracted 1.15 million investors and accumulated KES 12.6 billion in assets. Minimum investments were set at KES 100, with deposits and withdrawals handled through M-Pesa.
The equity trading initiative has drawn criticism from some stockbrokers, who earlier this year accused the NSE of attempting to bypass intermediaries. The exchange has said the omnibus account structure ensures licensed brokers remain involved, though in a reduced, back-end role.
For Safaricom, Ziidi Trader adds another revenue stream as it seeks to expand M-Pesa beyond payments. The company earned about KES 100 million from the Ziidi money market fund, equivalent to roughly 0.6% of assets under management.
Financial services accounted for 5.2% of M-Pesa revenues, or KES 4.6 billion, in the six months to September 2025, up 13.9% from a year earlier.
The NSE has set a target of 9 million active retail investors by 2029, including Kenyans living abroad. M-Pesa had 37.9 million one-month active users as of September 2025, providing the scale the exchange hopes to tap.
Whether easier access alone will be enough to rebuild confidence in equities after years of weak performance remains uncertain, analysts say.
