From 600,000 to 2.2 Million Users: The Playbook Behind Safaricom’s Pochi la Biashara Success

Pochi la Biashara now has 2.2 million users, surpassing the 1 million merchants signed up for Lipa na M-PESA, and insiders at the company are now calling it one of their best-kept secrets.

A new GSMA study digs into how that growth happened, tracing the jump from 600,000 users in 2024 to 1.1 million in 2025, before it doubled again to 2.2 million. Researchers surveyed 1,992 women running small businesses who use digital financial tools, spanning 35 markets in Nairobi, Murang’a, and Kajiado counties.

The research began with a puzzle: Pochi was clearly catching on among Kenyans with side businesses, but a lot of women entrepreneurs weren’t tapping into everything the product offered, and as a result, were leaving value on the table.

Two design choices make Pochi particularly well-suited to women in business: transactions can’t be reversed by the sender, and senders can’t view the receiver’s phone number. Both features cut down on fraud risk and unwanted contact from people with bad intentions.

But awareness of other features lagged badly. Among new users, 48% knew the mini-statement tool existed, yet just 8% had actually used it. The Lipa na Pochi feature fared a bit better, with 71% awareness and 53% usage, while the airtime buy/sell function saw only 34% awareness and a mere 7% adoption.

Safaricom’s response was to run targeted SMS campaigns spotlighting these features, paired with incentives, like a 5% cashback reward once customers hit certain usage milestones with Lipa na Pochi.

The study also surfaced a harder truth: launching a good product isn’t enough. Sustained follow-up matters just as much. As the report put it, Safaricom’s own market checks showed users often went quiet after signing up, with little ongoing engagement to remind them how the product could help — leading to weaker long-term usage.

Demonstration, it turns out, beats explanation. Combined with modest incentives, hands-on learning proved far more persuasive than instructions alone. Field agents would physically show women traders that Pochi could handle payments and withdrawals directly, which helped dispel confusion and build trust.

Rather than chasing new sign-ups, Safaricom pivoted toward helping its existing user base actually understand and use the tools already available to them. Call centre staff began reaching out directly to Pochi users to identify what was holding them back from using certain features, then walked them through the “why” and “how.” Trade representatives also showed up in person for customers who needed extra guidance, working through the phone steps together,  a learning-by-doing approach that boosted both comprehension and confidence. New merchants now go through hands-on onboarding sessions where reps walk them through Pochi’s core features and explain why each one matters for their business.

Among the study’s clearer findings: mere availability doesn’t drive usage, ongoing engagement and reminders do, and these build familiarity and confidence over time. Recommendations matter too, especially among women, and consistent education around a product correlates strongly with adoption.

Word-of-mouth, in fact, was the dominant discovery channel: about 49% of new users first heard about Pochi from friends or family, and another 21% signed up after a personal recommendation.

There was also a lesson about meeting people where they are. Although 70% of the women surveyed own smartphones, most still preferred accessing Pochi through USSD rather than the My OneApp or M-PESA app, valuing its simplicity, reliability, and independence from data connectivity. Their main complaint w