What You Need to Know About M-PESA’s Ziidi Trader
•February 10, 2026
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Why It Matters
By lowering traditional barriers, Ziidi Trader could dramatically increase retail participation on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, reshaping Kenya’s capital market dynamics. Its success will signal how mobile money platforms can drive financial inclusion and new investment behaviors.
Key Takeaways
- •M-PESA users can trade NSE stocks directly via app
- •No separate CDS account; trades pooled in Safaricom ledger
- •Instant settlement returns proceeds to same M-PESA wallet
- •Lowered entry barriers may boost Kenyan retail equity participation
- •Users lack direct voting rights; broker holds share certificates
Pulse Analysis
M‑PESA has become Kenya’s financial backbone, with over 37 million active wallets handling everyday payments, savings, and credit. Yet the country’s capital markets have remained largely inaccessible to ordinary savers, constrained by cumbersome brokerage procedures and the requirement for a Central Depository System (CDS) account. Ziidi Trader arrives at this intersection, turning a familiar mobile‑money interface into a gateway for equity investment, and directly addresses the long‑standing retail participation gap on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The platform embeds trading functions within the existing M‑PESA menu, allowing users to browse live NSE prices, place orders, and see settlements reflected instantly in their wallets. Instead of opening individual CDS accounts, Safaricom partners with licensed brokers such as Kestrel Capital, pooling all customer trades into a single custodial account while maintaining an internal ledger that records each user’s holdings. This architecture removes paperwork, eliminates minimum balance thresholds, and delivers near‑real‑time cash flow, but it also means investors do not hold shares in their own names, potentially limiting voting rights and altering protection mechanisms in a broker insolvency scenario.
If Ziidi Trader succeeds, millions of Kenyans could transition from cash‑only transactions to diversified asset portfolios, injecting fresh liquidity into the NSE and prompting a shift in market dynamics. The move may pressure traditional brokerage firms to innovate, while regulators will need to monitor custodial risk and ensure transparent dispute‑resolution pathways. Ultimately, the service exemplifies how mobile‑money ecosystems can accelerate financial inclusion, setting a precedent for other emerging markets seeking to blend digital payments with accessible investment opportunities.
What you need to know about M-PESA’s Ziidi Trader
On Tuesday, Safaricom launched Ziidi Trader, a new service that allows M-PESA users to buy and sell shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), addressing a gap in Kenya’s capital markets that stockbrokers and investment banks have yet to fully resolve.
The platform will enable the over 37 million M-PESA users to buy and sell stocks the same way they send money to a friend or pay for utilities like electricity. To understand why Ziidi Trader feels different, it helps to picture the before-and-after of how ordinary Kenyans have accessed capital markets.
“Ziidi Trader is a powerful step in democratizing wealth for our customers. For eighteen years, M‑PESA has transformed how Kenyans live, work, and do business,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said during the launch. “Today, in partnership with the NSE, we are extending that impact to how our customers build and grow their wealth.”
Paperwork and stockbrokers
Until recently, someone in Nairobi, Mombasa, or Kisumu, three of Kenya’s biggest cities, who wanted to buy shares on the NSE had to deal with a lot of paperwork and go through a licenced stockbroker, including some banks like KCB Group and DTB.
First, you needed a Central Depository System (CDS) account, an identity that brokers open for you. Then you’d engage a licenced stock brokerage, fill out forms, do Know‑Your‑Customer (KYC) checks, link your bank accounts, and only then could you buy listed equities. This is the process in most African capital markets, but in Kenya, it was a barrier, particularly after the broad uptake of digital payments.
With Ziidi Trader, Safaricom has decided that if people already trust M‑PESA with their money—sending, receiving, saving, borrowing—they should be able to invest it too. So instead of forcing everyone into separate brokerage accounts, Ziidi Trader brings stock trading inside M‑PESA.
Buy shares like sending money
For Ziidi Trader, you don’t need a separate login or a CDS number. Instead, as soon as you have an M‑PESA account, Ziidi Trader becomes an option in the app menu. Safaricom has integrated onboarding, trading, tracking, and settlement into a seamless flow. The app gives live prices, allowing users to decide how much to invest, confirm the order, and—just like a payment—have the M-PESA wallet debited.
When you sell, the cash is returned to the same wallet instantly.
There’s no minimum bank balance required to unlock access, unlike with traditional stockbrokers. To get started, you’re asked to verify basic information, such as your source of funds and occupation, and to acknowledge that investing carries risk. Safaricom also embeds standard disclaimers about stock prices rising and falling, because Ziidi Trader is still a gateway to fundamental financial markets, not a guaranteed income stream.
How it works
Users don’t get a CDS account in their names under Ziidi Trader. Instead, trades from many customers are pooled into an account operated by Safaricom in partnership with licenced brokers like Kestrel Capital. It means the broker holds the actual share certificates, and Ziidi Trader keeps an internal ledger that shows how much of each stock M-PESA users own.
That’s not inherently bad—it’s actually how many modern fintech trading apps manage large volumes of small trades across markets—but it is different from the traditional model where your name is written on the exchange’s registry.
The structure might mean no direct voting rights, or, in an extreme scenario involving broker insolvency, protections could differ from standard CDS ownership. The risk is theoretical mainly today, but it’s one of the trade‑offs of simplicity.
Why this matter
Tuesday’s launch responds to a long‑standing gap in Kenya’s capital markets. For years, retail participation on the NSE has barely budged. If Ziidi Trader succeeds in lowering the barriers, it could bring millions of new retail participants into equities.
What users should understand
From a user perspective, here are a few practical tips worth considering before investing:
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Ease of use doesn’t eliminate risk: Shares can go up or down, and there’s no guaranteed return just because trading is simple.
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Your shares are tracked internally: Under the Ziidi Trader model, the broker holds the shares on behalf of many users, so account holders should understand how that affects voting rights or dispute resolution.
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Investor education still matters: A click is easier than a brokerage form, but an uninformed trade can still lose money. Regulators and Safaricom include risk notices during onboarding to help here.
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