The Untold Story of M-Pesa: How Was It Really Built? | Catherine Karimi Gichunge

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:27:18 +0000

The M-Pesa story is often told like a myth: a brilliant innovation that grew "organically" into a billion-dollar behemoth. But what did it really take to build Africa's most iconic fintech?

In this episode, Samora Kariuki is joined by Catherine Karimi Gichunge, a member of the original M-Pesa team who was there from the very beginning. She pulls back the curtain on the messy, unglamorous, and deliberate work that made it all possible, from the four-year pilot before the 2007 launch to the on-the-ground hustle of building an agent network without Google Maps. This is the masterclass in building something real, one user and one agent at a time.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:
● The true origin story of M-Pesa as a microfinance loan disbursement tool, not a P2P payment service.
● How the "Send Money Home" phenomenon was discovered by observing unexpected user behavior during the pilot phase.
● The on-the-ground reality: launching with only 35 inactive agents and using guerrilla marketing tactics to drive initial adoption.
● The secret financial architecture that makes M-Pesa work: understanding the critical roles of the control account, working capital, float, and commission accounts.
● How real-world problems led to innovation, like the creation of the aggregator and super agent models to solve commission payment and liquidity challenges.
● An expert take on why Kenya became a mobile money market while Nigeria became a bank-led payments market.

Key Quote:
"I had to walk from Muranga Road... to Haile Selassie on foot, set up another agent. People do not know these things. They say it is organic growth. It is not."

Connect with Us:
● Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

● Catherine Karimi Gichunge (Guest):https://www.linkedin.com/in/ca....therine-karimi-gichu

● FrontierFintech: Website/Newsletter]https://substack.com/@frontierfintech

00:00 – Intro
17:41 – The Secret to E-Money
26:21 – The First Digital Payment
36:10 – The Secret That Won the Agents
44:15 – From E-Money to Real Money
49:30 – The Discovery of Stored Value
52:32 – The "Send Money Home" Lightbulb Moment
1:03:40 – From First Agent to M-Pesa CEO
1:06:47 – The Art of Agent Training
1:13:00 – The Grind Before the Glory
1:14:30 – The Unsung Heroes of M-Pesa
1:17:45 – No Google Maps, No Problem
1:21:06 – Launch Day Reality Check
1:22:00 – The Guerilla Marketing Playbook
1:26:28 – The Liquidity Challenge
1:40:00 – The Power of the Informal Sector
1:44:30 – Don’t Compete, Create an Alternative
1:45:50 – The Real Cost of Building M-Pesa
1:52:30 – The M-Pesa Alternative Playbook
2:02:00 – How Banks Are Leaking Money
2:10:00 – Outro