When most Americans think of mobile money, they think of Venmo, Cash App, or PayPal. But the real pioneers of this space aren’t in Silicon Valley, they’re in Nairobi, Lagos, and Johannesburg.

In 2007, Kenya introduced M-PESA, a groundbreaking mobile money service that revolutionized how people store, send, and use money without access to traditional banking. What started as a local solution to an infrastructure problem has since become one of Africa’s most valuable exports: a blueprint for mobile finance innovation across the world.

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