Why did M-Pesa succeed so strongly in Kenya while similar products underperformed in South Africa or India?

At a conference I had the rare privilege of speaking to one of the original product development managers of the M-Pesa launch. I asked her why M-Pesa was successful, and barring the technology element, why did it take off the way it did.

She gave us various reasons (technology, BIT, etc.) but the reasons she gave me was entrepreneurial spirit of the Kenyan people.

Though a big hard to understand, she cited the following example, I am paraphrasing from memory here, so please do not take this to be her literal quote.

Before M-Pesa, in a little town outside 100 kilometers from Nairobi, there is this bus stop, one that is frequently used by merchants / traders and farmers coming into Nairobi. Switching buses from this stop and then entering the city.

The bus stop had a tuck shop (a small cold-drink/snack type shop). Really broken down, walls with fading and long peeled out paint, hardly any shade, dusty all around etc.

After M-Pesa, the shop now has a been thoroughly expanded, refurbished, repainted and restocked. It is painted with bright colors and has chairs and shade around it. Many people can be seen congregating and loitering around it (too much for it to serve the purpose of a small shop). Turns out on the back wall of the shop, some entrepreneurial spirited Kenyan painted the wall black (properly) and with chalk started quoting prices prevalent in the city for vegetables and other highly traded commodities. Farmers and traders made this a last stop so to speak before venturing out further into the city, if they wished to trade. The prices were being quoted daily, were being texted all around to those who inquired and there was a bidding paid by M-Pesa to get listed on this wall, etc. Many traders met at this shop and traded. The shop in many ways became the mid-way point for trading.

This is what M-Pesa did to my people. It transformed them. There are 100s of such stories. The shop doesn't exist now. The pricing now is communicated purely on the mobile phones and the need for the chalked wall is no longer necessary.

M-Pesa transformed lives more so in Kenya than anywhere else (though I seriously would argue that). It is not the biggest success story, it is one of the most well marketed and documented story. There are stories like M-Pesa in Bangladesh, Philippines, Pakistan, etc.

The product really solved multiple problems and even more so, it inadvertently solved problems that were not thought of before (such as price quotes and trading cited in the example above).