Safaricom Ziidi Trader Claims Fintech of the Year Prize in Brazzaville

Safaricom PLC (SCOM) secured top continental honors at the twentieth edition of the African Banker Awards, where its digital investment platform, Ziidi Trader, won the Fintech of the Year category.

The announcement, made at the Kempinski Hotel in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, placed the Kenyan mobile application at the center of continental financial technology discussions, during an event held on the sidelines of the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meetings.

The platform operates through the M-PESA mobile-money ecosystem, allowing retail investors to buy and sell equities listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) directly via their mobile handsets.

By eliminating complex onboarding steps, the service provides retail users with real-time access to capital markets, portfolio tracking, and personalized watchlists.

Safaricom first entered this specific digital wealth segment with the introduction of its money market fund version, expanding the suite to include Shariah-compliant alternatives before deploying the equity trading tool in partnership with the local stock exchange.

The infrastructure behind the platform relies on a 1.5 percent transaction fee system, allowing individuals to trade from a minimum of a single share up to daily transactional thresholds capped at KES 500,000, which aligns with standard regulatory limits on mobile wallets.

According to records from the platform, dividends issued by listed firms are credited directly back into the digital wallets of the investors, which helps integrate equity investment into daily digital financial routines.

The judging panel for the awards, which are organized by African Banker magazine, evaluated institutions based on market modernization, financial integration, and the expansion of access across the financial systems of the continent.

The event in Brazzaville brought together central bank governors, finance ministers, and institutional executives, including the Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, who represented President Denis Sassou Nguesso at the gala.

The recognition of the platform highlights an industry shift toward embedding complex capital market transactions inside mainstream mobile utility networks, a model that relies heavily on existing national telecommunications networks.

By utilizing the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) framework, the system aims to mobilize dormant retail capital, where historically only a small fraction of registered central depository accounts actively participated in weekly equity trading.