DARAJA 3.0: WHAT TO EXPECT

Safaricom officially launched Daraja 3.0, the latest evolution of its open developer platform, marking a step forward in how businesses and innovators connect with the M-PESA financial ecosystem.

Launched in 2017, the original Daraja platform Swahili for bridge was designed to simplify and accelerate how businesses integrate with M-PESA. It transformed a process that once took over two months into a streamlined, accessible experience. This allowed companies to quickly embed M-PESA’s cashless payment services like Lipa Na M-PESA into their websites, apps, and point-of-sale systems.

“We made the journey a bit more friendly. Documentation is basically the information about the various API products that we have on Daraja. It gives you what it is that you need, the requirements. It gives you the end-to-end overview of what it is that you need as far as the integration project process is concerned,” explained Eric Nyaga, Product Owner for Daraja.

After the successful adoption of Daraja 2.0 in 2019, which introduced enhanced user capabilities, Safaricom now introduces Daraja 3.0. This new version is built on a modern, cloud-native foundation, offering stronger security, greater reliability, and faster performance. The upgrade ensures better system uptime, compliance with international standards, and the ability to roll out new features more swiftly.

Key advancements in Daraja 3.0 include new Security APIs for improved fraud prevention and identity verification. The platform now also allows businesses to create and host services directly within the M-PESA Super App, giving them instant access to millions of users. New, advanced product APIs will enable developers to build more relevant and secure solutions across various industries.

As Safaricom accelerates to become Africa’s leading purpose-led technology company by 2030, the developer ecosystem will be instrumental in positioning M-PESA as the partner of choice for customers, enterprises and the public sector.