Do people use cards in Kenya?
Yes, but far less than mobile money. Card payments at POS terminals reached KSh 297 billion in 2025 on about 54,000 terminals, mostly Visa and Mastercard. Cards matter for supermarkets, travel, tourism and cross-border e-commerce.
In detail
Yes, but far less than mobile money. Card payments at POS terminals reached KSh 297 billion in 2025 on about 54,000 terminals, mostly Visa and Mastercard. Cards matter for supermarkets, travel, tourism and cross-border e-commerce.
How people pay in Kenya in 2026
Banks and cards play a supporting role. Card payments at POS terminals reached KSh 297 billion in 2025, a fraction of mobile money flows. PesaLink, the banks' instant transfer service, moved KSh 1.1 trillion in 2024. Credit is mostly mobile too: Fuliza, M-PESA's overdraft, lent KSh 1.47 trillion in the year to March 2026.
Payment by card in Kenya
Kenya has no domestic card scheme. Banks issue Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, and both brands share the market. Card use grows slowly: CBK data show 61.7 million card transactions worth KSh 297 billion at POS terminals in 2025, up from KSh 291.9 billion in 2024, on 54,454 terminals at the end of the year. For comparison, mobile money moved about KSh 722 billion a month in 2025, according to the CBK Bank Supervision Annual Report.
More detail in our #PayWorldTour guide Payment methods in Kenya.