This archive report was first published on 8 October 2019.
On October 8, 2019, Project Management Institute (PMI) recognized Safaricom's M-PESA as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Finance Projects of the last 50 years in its 2019 Most Influential Projects list.
M-PESA, a 12-year-old service, stood out among the Top 50 Most Influential Projects in the last five decades, beating over 1,000 projects considered by a group of 400 leaders in the global project management community.
According to Michael Joseph, CEO Safaricom, 'We are honoured to receive this accolade and global recognition which is a true testament to our impact on society. This recognition further underlines M-PESA's commitment to our customers and its transformation to the country which has seen financial inclusion in Kenya grow by more than 50 percent in the last 12 years to stand at more than 82 percent today.'
PMI's recognition is part of its 50th anniversary celebration, which includes various activities to recognize the important role project management has played over the past five decades and celebrate where the profession is going.
Since its launch, M-PESA has contributed significantly to the growth in financial inclusion in the country, with economists from MIT and Georgetown University finding that it lifted more than 195,000 Kenyan families from extreme poverty by empowering customers with the agency to receive money from any other phone user in the country.
As of 2017, M-PESA's impact extended through its ecosystem of more than 1,100 suppliers, 400 active dealers, and more than 167,000 agents who benefitted directly from the service. It has also contributed up to KES 75 billion in revenue to Safaricom and has grown to serve more than 26 million active customers today.
