What is Safaricom's My OneApp and why was it created?
My OneApp is Safaricom's unified digital platform that merges the M-PESA app and the MySafaricom app into a single AI-powered interface. Unveiled on April 2, 2026, at the Decode 4.0 engineering summit in Nairobi, it gives customers access to mobile money, connectivity services, investments, insurance, and lifestyle content without switching between applications.
The consolidation addresses a friction point that had existed for years. Safaricom customers managing their finances through M-PESA — Kenya's dominant mobile money service — and their connectivity through the MySafaricom app were maintaining two separate logins, two distinct user experiences, and two homes for services that increasingly belonged in the same workflow. Safaricom's engineers described maintaining two separate codebases, two security protocols, and two user journeys as "a liability."
The platform had been in public beta for several months before its formal launch, marking a shift from a fragmented service model to a unified system. Safaricom frames My OneApp as the centrepiece of what it calls its FinTech 2.0 strategy — an ambition to evolve from a telecommunications company into what executives describe as a digital "operating system" for everyday Kenyan life. The competitive timing is deliberate: banks such as Equity Group Holdings and KCB Group have been upgrading their mobile platforms to rival M-PESA's simplicity, targeting payments, transfers, and savings — areas Safaricom has long dominated.
What features does My OneApp include?
My OneApp integrates M-PESA transactions, airtime and data bundle purchases, Bonga points management, Mshwari savings and loans, ZiiDi money market fund investments, Fuliza overdraft access, Pochi la Biashara business income separation, NFC tap-to-pay, AI Pay receipt scanning, an offline transaction mode, and over 80 third-party mini-app services — all within a single interface.
A new feature called AI Pay allows customers to scan a receipt, after which the app automatically extracts payment details — from paybill number to amount — and prompts the correct action, whether Send Money, Pay Bill, or another M-PESA service. NFC (Near-Field Communication) tap-to-pay lets users tap their phones at supported merchant points to complete payments seamlessly; for lower-value transactions, customers may set thresholds below which no PIN is required.
The financial services layer runs deep. Customers can invest in money market funds via ZiiDi, trade shares through CD Trader, access Fuliza credit, separate business income using Pochi la Biashara, and purchase device or income-protection insurance products. Entertainment services — including Baze, gaming, and news access — sit alongside financial tools, with third-party mini-app integrations positioning the platform as what executives describe as a "digital lifestyle ecosystem."
How does the offline mode work?
Offline mode allows essential transactions — Send Money, Lipa na M-PESA, agent withdrawals, and airtime purchases — to proceed without an active data connection, routing through SMS as the underlying channel. This design is a practical concession to Kenya's uneven network coverage outside major urban centres, where data access is not always guaranteed. Users can log in and execute core M-PESA functions even when connectivity drops entirely.
How do mini-apps work inside My OneApp?
Rather than requiring users to download separate applications for individual services, businesses and developers can embed their offerings directly inside My OneApp through Safaricom's Daraja API (Application Programming Interface) ecosystem — lightweight applications that run inside the host platform, giving developers instant access to an existing user base without the distribution cost of competing for app store visibility.
The app hosts over 80 third-party services, ranging from train bookings to M-TIBA health insurance, allowing Safaricom to collect a platform fee and valuable consumer data without the user ever leaving the interface. Safaricom's Super App team told attendees at Decode 4.0 that developers creating a mini-app can reach as many as 10 million customers — a distribution proposition that no independent app launch in Kenya can currently match. With more than 66,000 integrations through the Daraja API platform, the ecosystem strengthens the bridge between developers, businesses, and consumers.
What infrastructure powers My OneApp?
My OneApp runs on a cloud-native, AI-first architecture capable of processing 6,000 transactions per second — a 60-fold increase from M-PESA's earlier capacity of roughly 100 transactions per second. The system uses an active-active design, meaning two engines run simultaneously rather than one primary and one cold backup, eliminating single points of failure at the infrastructure level.
A September 2025 infrastructure upgrade introduced this active-active model, transforming M-PESA from a highly available service into what engineers describe as a genuine always-on utility. The multi-tenant architecture reflects long-term thinking: it prepares the platform not just for today's transaction volumes, but for the ecosystem of developers and businesses building on top of it.
The Daraja 3.0 API platform, introduced in November 2025, has connected over 100,000 developers who have created more than 60,000 integrations using M-PESA's cloud-native architecture. That developer layer is what separates My OneApp from a simple UI consolidation. Whoever owns the interface in a digital ecosystem tends to own the customer relationship — and Safaricom is engineering for exactly that outcome.
How do you download and set up My OneApp?
My OneApp is available on Android via the Google Play Store and on iOS through the Apple App Store. Users search for "My OneApp," download or update the application, and complete setup using their Safaricom SIM card, which must be inserted and active in the device as the primary SIM. M-PESA registration is a prerequisite for accessing mobile money features.
My OneApp supports smart Android, iOS, and Huawei devices running 4G connectivity and above. The app requires the SIM card to be physically present in the device at all times — a deliberate security measure that significantly reduces instances of customer fraud by binding the session to the registered SIM. This SIM-binding authentication created friction for diaspora users during the initial rollout — a limitation addressed in the launch issues section below.
Customers abroad can download or update to My OneApp by activating roaming bundles and ensuring the Safaricom SIM card is set as the primary or default SIM. The app's Quick Care section provides in-app access to security tools, PUK retrieval, fraud reporting, subscription management, and line management — replacing several customer service touchpoints that previously required a phone call or a visit to a Safaricom retail shop.
What problems did the My OneApp launch encounter?
My OneApp's April 2026 rollout generated widespread user complaints covering authentication failures, lost saved paybill data, M-PESA transaction errors, and forced migration without advance notice. Safaricom issued a formal public apology on April 16, 2026 — two weeks after launch — acknowledging that millions of users were automatically switched to the new app through auto-update settings without prior warning.
Authentication and access were the most acute failure points: many users reported being unable to log in with correct credentials, while others experienced repeated login loops that locked them out entirely. Saved data — paybill numbers, till numbers, and phone contacts that users had stored over months or years — did not migrate from the old M-PESA app. For people paying the same landlord and the same utility provider every month, that loss was a significant practical disruption. Not a minor inconvenience.
Safaricom's statement acknowledged that users whose phones had auto-updates enabled were migrated to My OneApp without warning. The Consumer Federation of Kenya (COFEK) subsequently pushed the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) to probe Safaricom over forced migration concerns and questions about compliance with consumer protection requirements. By April 7, Safaricom was publicly acknowledging on X that login issues persisted and that most financial mini-app services were not working. The formal apology arrived nine days later — a timeline critics described as far too slow for a company managing Kenya's most critical payment infrastructure.
Can users revert to the old M-PESA app?
Android users can revert to the older standalone M-PESA app (version 3.5.9), which remains available through APKMirror, though it requires fully uninstalling My OneApp first and disabling automatic updates before reinstalling the legacy version. The older MySafaricom app is also still active, with the migration to My OneApp described as ongoing rather than complete; some services remain split across both apps temporarily. Safaricom has not confirmed a final deadline for retiring either legacy application.
How does My OneApp compare to other super apps globally?
My OneApp's mini-app model mirrors WeChat's architecture in China, where lightweight third-party applications run inside a host platform rather than requiring separate downloads. The critical distinction is market context: My OneApp operates in a mobile-money-first economy where M-PESA already processes the majority of Kenya's digital transactions, giving Safaricom a structural advantage that no super app launch in a card-dominant Western market can replicate from scratch.
The model is directly comparable to WeChat's mini-programs — lightweight applications that run inside a host platform, giving developers instant access to an existing user base without the distribution cost of competing for app store visibility. WeChat's mini-program ecosystem took several years to reach critical mass in China, starting from a position where Tencent had to convince developers the platform was worth building for. Safaricom enters with a pre-existing base of over 10 million app users and M-PESA's decades-long penetration of Kenya's payment infrastructure.
The ambition extends beyond Kenya. Safaricom operates in Ethiopia and maintains M-PESA deployments across several African markets. My OneApp's cloud-native architecture — designed for multi-tenancy from the ground up — positions the platform for regional expansion without requiring country-specific rebuilds. Whether execution quality improves fast enough to match that strategic ambition remains the defining question for 2026 and beyond.
What does My OneApp mean for Safaricom's FinTech 2.0 strategy?
My OneApp is the consumer-facing expression of Safaricom's FinTech 2.0 strategy, which repositions the company from a mobile network operator into a platform business. The strategy depends on owning the interface layer across payments, connectivity, investment, insurance, and lifestyle — generating revenue from platform fees, data insights, and ecosystem partnerships rather than solely from airtime and data margins.
In digital ecosystems, whoever owns the interface often owns the customer relationship. Safaricom's CEO Peter Ndegwa framed the platform's purpose at Decode 4.0: "Our role is to provide the rails. What developers build on top of them will define the next phase of growth." That framing signals a deliberate shift from product ownership to platform governance — a structurally different business model with different revenue dynamics and different competitive exposure.
The launch turbulence of April 2026 doesn't invalidate the strategy. A rocky rollout is recoverable; a fragmented product architecture that well-capitalised competitors can outpace is not. The Ziidi Trader initiative, launched in February 2026 in collaboration with the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), allows M-PESA users to buy shares with as little as one share, opening Kenya's capital markets to millions of people who previously lacked access. My OneApp is the container for all of it. The open question is whether Safaricom can stabilise the experience fast enough to retain the trust of the users it has already unsettled.
