Safaricom has introduced Ziidi Trader, a new feature within the M-Pesa app that allows users to buy and sell shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) directly from their mobile money accounts.
The service is built into the M-Pesa Financial Services menu, removing the need to open separate broker accounts, complete paper forms, or undergo additional identity checks beyond what users already have for M-Pesa.
This makes it possible for customers to start trading shares using their existing mobile money credentials and balances.
The impact was visible almost immediately when, on Friday last week, just a day after the pilot phase began, the NSE recorded its highest number of daily trades from retail investors.
About 7,500 of the 14,000 trades executed that day were routed through Ziidi Trader, showing how quickly the integration of share trading into M-Pesa can change participation in the stock market.
With Ziidi Trader, users simply opt in, choose the companies they want to invest in, and complete transactions directly through M-Pesa.
It is an innovative and first-of-a-kind move by Safaricom as the telco aims to include all Kenyans in the stock market and wealth management.
Ziidi Trader is designed to address the long-standing challenges that have limited retail investor activity at the NSE, including high minimum trading requirements, lengthy onboarding processes and unfamiliar market procedures.
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It was commissioned by President William Ruto, who said it’s an effort by the government to democratise access to financial markets and investment opportunities.
“This platform represents a decisive turning point in how citizens engage with the stock exchange,” Ruto said.
“It opens the doors of market participation wider than ever before, dismantling long-standing barriers that have locked out many willing investors, and bringing opportunities closer to all citizens.”
Ziidi Trader focuses on a vast number of local investors who had been locked out of the capital markets, going by the cumbersome Central Depository System (CDS) platform, which required brokerage for one to trade in the desired stock.
Ziidi Trader builds on the earlier launch of the Ziidi Money Market Fund in 2025, which attracted strong uptake due to its simple opt-in process.
