Speaking during his state visit to Finland on Thursday, June 11, 2026, President William Ruto said Kenya offers wide economic opportunities and has positioned itself as a safe destination for innovation and investment, especially in the digital economy.
“We urge Finnish, and by extension European, companies to view Kenya not through outdated narratives of risk, but through the reality of our immense potential and the vast opportunities our nation offers,” Ruto stated.
He pointed to the country’s growing pool of young innovators and entrepreneurs, saying they are building practical and affordable solutions to everyday challenges, many of which are now attracting attention beyond Kenya’s borders.
On his part, the Head of State said Kenya’s innovation ecosystem continues to expand, driven by creativity, adaptability, and strong uptake of technology across sectors.
Ruto also highlighted the global success of M-Pesa as a clear example of Kenya’s ability to develop technology that scales beyond its borders and transforms financial access.
“Kenya’s youthful and innovative entrepreneurs have built a culture of solving real-world challenges with practical, affordable and scalable solutions. The success of M-Pesa stands as a testament to this spirit of innovation and our capacity to develop transformative technologies with global relevance,”Ruto stated.
The mobile money service M-Pesa, operated by Safaricom, has grown into one of the most widely used financial platforms in Africa and beyond, reshaping how people send, receive, and store money.
The idea of developing M-Pesa dates back to 2003 as a model for sustainable development. It was first proposed by Nick Hughes, then head of social enterprise at Vodafone.
His proposal to use mobile phones for financial services received one million pounds funding from the Department for International Development (DFID), a United Kingdom government department Department for International Development.
In 2005, after bringing in Susie Lonie, who had experience in mobile commerce, work on the system advanced into pilot testing. Safaricom began building the operational network, identifying airtime dealers and recruiting agents to support the rollout.
By October 2005, early pilot tests were running with selected agent stores using the M-Pesa system. On March 6, 2007, M-Pesa was officially launched, and within a month it had 19,671 active users.
By November of the same year, the number of active users had surged to over 1 million, showing rapid public adoption.
Today, about 25 million Kenyans use the service. In 2015, transactions through M-Pesa reached 28 billion dollars, equivalent to about 44 per cent of Kenya’s GDP at the time, which stood at 63.4 billion dollars.
In the first three quarters of 2016, the platform processed about 25 billion dollars in transactions, making it one of the most widely used mobile money systems globally in terms of users and transaction volumes.