For many growing businesses in Kenya, managing rising payment volumes is becoming a bigger operational problem.
In 2025, Kenya recorded 51.4 million mobile money subscriptions, up about 22% from the previous year, alongside 473,536 active mobile money agents. That payment activity sits inside a $135.94 billion economy.
These numbers show just how deeply digital payments are embedded in Kenya. But they also point to another problem that comes with scale.
Receiving a few customer payments is one thing. Collecting thousands of payments, processing refunds, paying suppliers, settling merchants and still giving finance teams a clear view of where money sits is a much harder operation.
In this guide, we'll explain how businesses in Kenya can manage collections and payouts at scale with Miden's payment infrastructure, and what to look for when choosing a payment partner.
What Are Pay-ins and Payouts in Kenya?
Pay-ins and payouts are two core parts of business payment infrastructure.
Pay-ins, or collections, cover money coming into a business from customers, merchants or partners.
Payouts, or disbursements, cover money a business sends to suppliers, merchants, employees, customers and other beneficiaries.
Miden brings these payment flows together through its Accruals & Disbursements infrastructure, helping businesses manage incoming and outgoing money from a more connected system.
Why Are Collections and Disbursements Difficult For Businesses in Kenya?
Higher transactions volumes don't just mean more revenue, they also create more payment operations.
These payment operations in Kenya remain difficult primarily due to fragmented banking systems, high cross-border costs, regulatory complexity, and infrastructure gaps that force businesses to navigate a patchwork of disconnected systems.
- Cross-Border Payments still add Operational Complexity
Businesses in Kenya increasingly trade across African markets, but cross-border payments can still involve correspondent banks, currency conversion and multiple payment systems.
In February 2026, PesaLink partnered with the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, PAPSS, to enable 24/7 cross-border transfers in local currencies and reduce dependence on complex correspondent banking arrangements
The fact that new infrastructure is being built specifically to address these issues shows how important faster and better-connected cross-border payment rails have become for Kenyan businesses.
- Kenya is considering tighter payment licensing requirements
Kenya's draft National Payment System Bill, 2026 proposes a new licensing framework for payment companies, with minimum core capital requirements ranging from KES 5 million to KES 250 million, depending on the licence category.
This means businesses operating across more than one licence category would be required to hold the full capital requirement for their highest category, plus 50% of the minimum requirement for each additional category.
If enacted in its current form, these requirements could increase the cost and complexity of operating multiple payment services directly.
- Fragmentation Creates Reconciliation Nightmares For Businesses
Kenyan businesses can collect money across mobile money, bank transfers, cards and other channels. As these channels increase, finance teams can end up reconciling transaction reports, settlements and internal records across several systems.
What looks like a successful payment experience for the customer can therefore create significant work behind the scenes.
This is why business payment infrastructure needs to solve more than payment initiation. It also needs transaction monitoring, payment-status tracking, reconciliation, reporting and financial controls.
How Do You choose The Best Pay-in and Payout provider in Kenya?
When comparing payment providers or payment APIs in Kenya, you should look beyond whether a provider can simply receive or send money. Here are some key features your provider must have:
Full Visibility of all incoming and outgoing payments
Finance teams should be able to see collections and payouts without constantly moving between unrelated systems.
Automated reconciliation
Transactions should be easier to match against customer payments, settlements and internal records.
High-volume payment processing
The system should be able to support rising payment volumes without forcing finance teams to increase manual work at the same rate.
Clear payout status
A successful API request does not always mean a beneficiary has received their funds. Businesses should be able to track processing, successful and failed payment states.
Refund management
Businesses processing customer payments should have a clear process for managing refunds and reversals.
API integration
Fintechs, marketplaces and large companies may need collections and payouts built directly into their products rather than operated only from a dashboard.
Multi-currency operations
Companies trading outside Kenya also need to think about how local collections connect with international supplier payments, treasury and foreign currencies.
Read Also: How Fintechs Tackle Technical Debt and Infrastructure Decisions - Insights from 4 Industry Leaders
Why Choose Miden for Your Accruals & Disbursements?
Miden expanded into Kenya as part of its wider African expansion. Its Accruals and disbursements solution is part of a payment infrastructure that helps businesses in Kenya unify their payment operations. This suite of products includes: Global treasury, Banking Stack, Card Issuing, Core Banking Solutions.
| Use Case | Industries | How Miden Helps |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier & Vendor Payments | Retail, Manufacturing, Travel, Distribution |
• Individual & bulk disbursements • Payout gateway integration rails such as NIP, RTGS, SWIFT and mobile money, • Multi-currency FX payment operations • Automated reconciliation |
| Marketplace Settlements | E-commerce, Gig Platforms, Service Marketplaces |
• Static & Dynamic Virtual Accounts • Bulk disbursements & Refunds • Unified Ledger • AI driven Automated reconciliation • Transaction monitoring |
| Employee & Contractor Payments | Logistics, Field Services, Construction, Agribusiness |
• Salary disbursements • Employee Wallets • Installment Payment Support • Corporate card issuance • Spend Governance & audit controls |
| Insurance, Lending & Financial Services | Insurance, Fintech, Lending, Banking |
• Banking APIs • Automated Compliance • Premium Collections • Claims Payment • Multi-currency payment operations |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Accrual and Disbursement?
Accrual and disbursement refers to the management of money coming into and going out of a business. At Miden, Accruals & Disbursements combines collections, payouts, reconciliation, transaction monitoring and related payment operations into one infrastructure for high-volume businesses.
What is the best payment solution for businesses in Kenya?
The right solution depends on whether the business needs collections, payouts or both. High-volume businesses should also consider reconciliation, API access, transaction monitoring, supported payment channels and the ability to manage both incoming and outgoing money.
What is the difference between a payment gateway and a payout API?
A payment gateway mainly handles money coming into a business. A payout API allows the business to programmatically send money to beneficiaries such as customers, suppliers, employees or merchants.
Can businesses automate bulk payments in Kenya?
Yes. Businesses can use Miden's payout infrastructure to automate repetitive payments such as supplier settlements, merchant payouts, refunds and other high-volume disbursements.
Why is payment reconciliation important?
Reconciliation helps a business confirm that its internal transaction records match the money actually collected, settled, refunded or paid out. This becomes increasingly important as payment volume and the number of payment channels increase.
Final Thoughts
Solving the collections problem is not simply giving customers another way to pay. It is making sure that money coming in and money going out can still be tracked, reconciled and controlled as transaction volumes rise.
For businesses in Kenya processing large volumes and operating across several payment channels or expanding into more markets, collections and payouts should not operate as isolated systems.
Miden's Accruals & Disbursements infrastructure brings pay-ins, payouts, reconciliation and payment oversight together, helping finance and product teams manage more of the payment cycle from one system.
Looking for a better way to manage collections and payouts in Kenya?
Schedule a call with our Sales team today
