The Growth of M-Shwari in Kenya – A Market Development Story

This case study examines the development and scaling of M-Shwari, a mobile-based savings and loans product in Kenya created through a partnership between the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) and Safaricom. It details how FSD Kenya acted as a market facilitator, providing research and technical expertise to help CBA design a product tailored to low-income consumers, ultimately expanding formal financial access to millions of Kenyans.

• M-Shwari, launched in January 2013 as a collaboration between the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) and Safaricom, experienced rapid growth, reaching 9.2 million savings accounts and 2.8 million borrowers by the end of 2014.
• FSD Kenya facilitated the product's development by providing CBA with generic research, applied research for product concepts, and assistance in developing a credit scorecard based on M-Pesa data. FSD Kenya's total investment was approximately USD 650,000, while CBA invested USD 14 million.
• The product proved commercially viable for CBA, breaking even after 11 months and fully recovering initial investments and recurrent costs within 17 months. By the time of the report, M-Shwari contributed roughly 15% of CBA's total revenue and 19% of its net profit.
• Project TOBOA, conducted between December 2013 and May 2014, aimed to expand credit access to poorer applicants who were previously rejected. Supported by an FSD Kenya guarantee fund of up to KSh 30 million, the project resulted in over 1 million poorer users accessing credit and helped reduce the overall non-performing loan (NPL) rate to 2%.
• The success of M-Shwari stimulated further innovation and competition in the Kenyan market. This included the launch of KCB M-Pesa by Kenya Commercial Bank and the development of specialized products like 'Lock Savings' and 'Sema Doc' by Hello Doctor Kenya.
• CBA expanded the M-Shwari model to other African countries, including a launch in Tanzania in May 2014 through a partnership with Vodacom, and planned further expansions to three other African countries in 2016.

APA

Gibson, A., Elliott, D., & Johnson, D. (2016). The Growth of M-Shwari in Kenya – A Market Development Story. FSD Africa. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/M-Shwari_Briefing-final_digital-9.pdf

Chicago

Gibson, Alan, David Elliott, and Diane Johnson. The Growth of M-Shwari in Kenya – A Market Development Story. FSD Africa, 2016. https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/M-Shwari_Briefing-final_digital-9.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gibson |first1=Alan |last2=Elliott |first2=David |last3=Johnson |first3=Diane |title=The Growth of M-Shwari in Kenya – A Market Development Story |publisher=FSD Africa |date=November 2016 |url=https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/M-Shwari_Briefing-final_digital-9.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gibson2016growth, author = {Gibson, Alan and Elliott, David and Johnson, Diane}, title = {{The Growth of M-Shwari in Kenya – A Market Development Story}}, institution = {FSD Africa}, year = {2016}, month = nov, url = {https://fsdafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/M-Shwari_Briefing-final_digital-9.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }