The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is planning a national payment switch that could make it cheaper and easier for Kenyans to move money between banks, mobile money platforms and other payment providers.
The proposal is contained in the Draft National Payment System Policy for August 2026, which identifies high transaction costs and disconnected payment systems as some of the challenges facing consumers and businesses.
Under the proposed system, payments would be processed instantly across different platforms, allowing customers to send and receive money without being restricted by the payment provider they use.
The National Treasury and CBK plan to develop and implement a national instant payment switch that would connect different payment systems through common infrastructure and technical standards.
“The government will develop and implement a national instant payment switch,” the draft policy states.
Kenya has made significant progress in linking mobile money services, but the government says payment systems across the wider financial sector are not fully connected.
This includes banks, payment service providers and government payment platforms, where some transactions still require separate systems to communicate with each other.
The proposed switch is expected to bridge some of these gaps by allowing different platforms to work together through a common system.
The government also plans to introduce open application programming interface (API) standards. These would allow banks and other payment providers to connect their systems and process transactions across different platforms.
Banks, payment service providers and payment system operators would also be required to adopt national or international messaging standards to improve how transaction information is exchanged.
Treasury and CBK are further proposing incentives for institutions that adopt seamless interoperability, alongside regular compliance checks to ensure providers meet the required technical and operational standards.
However, the draft policy does not set specific charges that banks and payment providers would have to impose on customers.
This means the actual cost of transfers will depend on how the proposed payment switch is implemented and how individual providers price their services.
The proposed reforms also include changes to payment laws, a testing framework for new payment technologies and measures to allow more non-bank companies to access key payment systems.
If implemented, the changes would reshape how different payment platforms interact and could make it easier for customers to transfer money between banks, mobile wallets and other payment services.
