Safaricom has dominated Kenya's mobile money market for years, but Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V. — the Netherlands-based fintech arm of Airtel Africa — is now moving to chip away at one of its most profitable growth areas: international online payments.
The company plans to launch a Virtual Card Number (VCN), developed in partnership with Mastercard, that will integrate directly with Airtel Money wallets. Once live, customers will be able to pay for subscriptions and services on global platforms like Amazon and Netflix without needing a traditional bank account.
A Direct Clash with M-PESA GlobalPay
The product — branded Airtel Money Global Pay — puts the telco in head-to-head competition with M-PESA GlobalPay, Safaricom's virtual Visa card that has been running since 2022. Safaricom built a four-year head start, and the gap in market share is still wide.
Data from the Communications Authority of Kenya shows M-PESA's mobile money market share stood at 88.8% as of June 2026, down from nearly 95% in 2023. Over the same period, Airtel Money's share climbed to 11.1% — a meaningful rise, even if the distance between the two remains enormous.
That growth figure explains exactly why Airtel is making its move now. International payments are becoming a serious revenue line, not just a feature. Kenya's rising consumption of streaming services, cloud software, and overseas e-commerce has created a pool of foreign-currency spending that mobile money providers can compete for — spending that would otherwise route through bank-issued cards.
The Fuliza Problem
There is one area where Airtel's new card is at a clear disadvantage, at least at launch. M-PESA GlobalPay can tap into Fuliza, Safaricom's overdraft facility that lets eligible customers complete online payments even when their M-PESA balance falls short. Airtel Money's prepaid card does not offer this — customers must fund the card before any transaction goes through.
That gap matters. The ability to complete a payment even on an empty wallet is a real convenience edge, particularly for users who rely on their mobile wallet as a primary financial account. For those following the evolution of Africa's fintech infrastructure, this credit-access gap could be the deciding factor in whether casual Airtel Money users switch over for international purchases.
Why the Global Payments Race Matters Now
Netflix's entry into Africa in 2016 is a useful marker for how quickly international digital services became everyday expenses for Kenyan consumers. Virtual cards effectively let the unbanked — or the bank-averse — access those services through wallets they already use.
For operators feeling squeezed on domestic payment fees, cross-border transactions offer a way to earn from foreign currency conversion and merchant payments. It is a revenue stream that does not require winning a bigger slice of local person-to-person transfers.
M-PESA's global payments segment recorded KES 182.7 billion in total transaction value across 46.4 billion transactions in the same financial year — figures that show just how much scale Safaricom brings to the table. Even a modest share of that volume represents serious money for a challenger like Airtel.
Kenya's mobile payments sector has long operated as a near-monopoly. Airtel's VCN will not overturn that overnight, but it does give Kenyan consumers a second real option for spending online — and that alone is worth watching.