Safaricom’s Ziidi investment platform has gone from KES 1.3 billion in assets at launch to KES 15.1 billion in just over a year, and its new stock trading arm, Ziidi Trader, has already captured 40% of all trades on the Nairobi Securities Exchange since going live in February 2026 a number that signals a fundamental reshaping of who participates in Kenya’s capital markets.
- Ziidi Money Market Fund launched December 2024 in partnership with Standard Investment Bank and ALA Capital, accessible from any M-PESA phone via the app or *334#
- Assets under management surged 1,061% in the first year, from KES 1.3 billion to KES 15.1 billion by September 2025
- Active customers jumped from 130,000 to 1.15 million over the same period, representing nearly 48% of all individual unit trust investors in Kenya
- Revenue grew tenfold, from KES 10 million to KES 100 million in the same half-year comparison
- Ziidi Trader launched officially on February 10, 2026 in partnership with the NSE and brokerage firm Kestrel Capital
- Ziidi Trader already accounts for 40% of trades on the NSE by number and around 5% of total daily trading volume
- Minimum investment is KES 100 with zero transaction fees to and from M-PESA; a KES 4,500 trade costs approximately KES 68.50 all-in
- Users can buy shares, track portfolios, set price alerts and invest in corporate bonds entirely within M-PESA, with no broker account or paperwork needed
- A Shariah-compliant option (Ziidi Shariah) has also been added alongside the money market and trading products
What is Ziidi and why does it matter for everyday Kenyans? Before Ziidi, investing in Kenya’s stock market required a Central Depository and Settlement account, a licensed broker, minimum fees that penalised small trades, and physical paperwork. Only about 61,000 of Kenya’s 1.4 million registered NSE investors were actively trading, a participation rate of just 4.3%. Ziidi Money Market Fund removed the first barrier by letting anyone with KES 100 and an M-PESA account earn daily interest on government securities and T-bills, with instant withdrawals at any time. Ziidi Trader then went further: it placed a buy button for Kenyan listed shares directly inside the same app that 62 million Safaricom customers already use to send money, pay bills and buy airtime. No new account, no new app, no broker visit. The market came to where the money already was.
The Bigger Picture: Kenya has just demonstrated what financial infrastructure democratisation actually looks like at scale. In 14 months, Ziidi has onboarded more individual investors into the capital markets than the entire NSE had accumulated in active traders over decades. The 40% trade share by number is the most striking figure: it means nearly half of all buy and sell orders on the exchange now originate from a platform that did not exist two years ago. The implications extend beyond Kenya. M-PESA operates across Ethiopia, Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, Lesotho and Ghana, meaning Ziidi Trader’s model could be replicated across East and Southern Africa with relatively low incremental cost. For Safaricom, this is no longer just a telco story. Every product Ziidi adds deepens the case that M-PESA is becoming the financial operating system for a significant portion of the continent.
Source: African Business / Safaricom
