President William Ruto on February 10, 2026 presided over the launch of Safaricom Ziidi Trader platform, that enables Kenyans to by Nairobi Security Exchange stocks directly using the Mpesa app.

Speaking during the event in Westlands, Nairobi, President Ruto said that this project will be open to the public and everyone will have access to it for buying the NSE stocks.

The President emphasized that the project is suitable for small traders and will be run independently without government interference.

“This week as part of our commitment as a government, we will be doing it as we did it with Kenyan pipeline, we will do it with KenGen, this week we will be releasing the shares owned by private sectors to board members,” said Ruto.

He added that initially, about 200,000 people only had access to the stocks market because of the market structure but today there is room for more people to buy stock shares as stock capital.

”IPO is open to the public and people will be able to access the capital market, and I want to know what will happen in a month and in two months, I want to encourage Kenyans, this is an opportunity to own a high end value investment, and we will give first opportunity to Kenyans, it doesn’t matter who else wants to buy the shares,” he said.

Additionally, he explained that the advantage with share buying is that you can start buying at any time, anywhere as low as 1 share and start earning dividends.

Safaricom’s Ziidi Trader is a new M-PESA app feature allowing users to buy and sell Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) shares directly from their mobile wallets, removing the need for old school middlemen, and paperwork.

This update creates room for real-time tracking, enabling price alerts and will reduce any barriers to investing.

Ziidi Trader is directly integrated into the M-PESA App. It allows browsing listed companies, enabling buyer/seller orders, and portfolio tracking in a seamless way.

The goal for this is to democratize investing and turn daily M-PESA into a broader financial hub. Ziidi Trader will not require anyone to use CDS account to buy stock and invest.