Safaricom plans to launch a business insurance cover for small traders, with premiums from KSh1,700 a year, Bryan Nyutu told the KICTANet webinar,“Secure by Design: Protecting Your Business Where It Connects.”
Nyutu oversees insurance initiatives within Safaricom’s NextGen Fintech Group. He said the cover, called Tunza Biashara, would protect computers, desks and other business assets across business types, including semi-permanent structures.
Safaricom would sell it through channels such as the M-PESA Business Hub. He gave no launch date and said it would arrive “soon”.
Nyutu said insurance is not only for the wealthy and compared it to a watchman, whose protection everyone needs. He pointed to floods in Nairobi, El Niño warnings and next year’s election period as risks traders face.
Income cover already on sale
Tuunza Mapato is provided by Safaricom Insurance Agency Limited and underwritten by Turaco Microinsurance Limited, according to Safaricom’s FAQ page. Safaricom says it acts only as a technology provider and does not handle or pay claims.
Customers choose between two packages, paid weekly from M-PESA:
| Msingi | Bora | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly premium (individual) | KSh60 | KSh100 |
| Weekly premium (family of up to five) | KSh240 | KSh400 |
| Hospital cash per night | KSh1,000 | KSh2,000 |
| Maximum hospital cash a year | KSh30,000 | KSh60,000 |
| Funeral benefit | KSh100,000 | KSh200,000 |
The cover does not pay hospital bills. It pays a cash benefit after discharge, to offset costs such as transport and lost income, for stays of one or more nights at Ministry of Health-registered Level 3 to 5 hospitals. The funeral benefit goes to the next of kin if the policyholder or a covered family member dies.
Nyutu said customers can buy the cover through the M-PESA menu under Financial Services and in My OneApp under Get Insurance. Safaricom’s FAQ lists USSD *334# and Safaricom OneApp as the routes to opt in.
Customers with an active plan who pay every week for six months and make no claim receive a 15 percent cashback of premiums paid. A Msingi customer paying KSh60 a week for 26 weeks would receive KSh234.
Safaricom’s report says Tuunza Mapato reached 528,000 opt-ins and covered 148,000 lives in its first year of scale.
M-PESA moves beyond payments
Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa told CNN’s Victoria Rubadiri that one of the biggest decisions of his six years in the job was widening M-PESA from a payment platform into a broader financial ecosystem. He said M-PESA has more than doubled in the past five to six years.
He wants customers to pay, save, invest and insure on it, and described the goal as “an ecosystem that others can actually connect into”. He also described banks and insurers as competitors and partners.
M-PESA revenue rose 13.4 percent to KSh182.7 billion, or 45.6 percent of Kenya’s service revenue. Safaricom’s report describes insurance as an emerging addition to the platform.
The report also records:
- 7.5 million opted in customers on the wealth propositions, and 2.2 million active investors on the Ziidi Money Market Fund
- assets under management across those propositions above KSh21 billion
- 511,000 opt-ins and 84,000 trading subscribers on Ziidi Trader by year end. Ziidi Trader launched with the Nairobi Securities Exchange in February 2026.
Ndegwa said Ziidi Trader opens share trading to people transacting in very small amounts. He added that Safaricom’s super app, One App, already launched in Kenya, will use AI to tailor services to “a segment of one”, for individuals and businesses alike.
