Airtel Money is planning to launch a virtual card in Kenya that will allow customers to make international online payments directly from their mobile money wallets, setting up a new challenge to M-Pesa’s GlobalPay service.
The Airtel Money Global Pay Card, offered in partnership with Mastercard, is a virtual card number (VCN) that allows customers to transfer funds from their Airtel Money wallets and use them to pay for goods and services on international e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay.
Airtel Money’s Netherlands-based parent firm Airtel Mobile Commerce N.V. said it plans to introduce the card in Kenya as it expands digital payment services across its African markets.
It will put Airtel in direct competition with Safaricom’s M-Pesa GlobalPay, a virtual Visa card linked to the M-Pesa wallet that has been available to Kenyan customers since 2022.
‘The Group plans to launch the card in DRC, Gabon and Kenya,’ the company said in regulatory disclosures seen by the Business Daily.
The firm has not revealed timelines for the planned rollout.
VCNs are digital equivalents of debit or prepaid cards, enabling online payments without the need for physical cards.
They can be used for payments on international websites and digital subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
The Airtel card has already been introduced in Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania, where the group says it has issued more than 875,000 cards since its launch in 2025.
The virtual card will complement Airtel Money’s existing bill and merchant payment services, giving its customers another way to pay on international websites without requiring a traditional bank card.
It comes as mobile money operators expand usage beyond person-to-person cash transfers and agent withdrawals, with digital commerce emerging as a growing source of revenue.
Airtel Money operates in 13 African markets, including Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, DRC, Gabon, Madagascar, Niger and Seychelles.
The multinational said average transaction values for merchant payments in one of its operating companies increased from $20 (Sh2,593) in the year ended March 2022 to $74 (Sh9,595) in the year to June 2026.
East Africa was the group’s largest revenue contributor in the year ended March 2026, covering Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi.
Airtel Money revenues from the region rose to $1 billion (Sh129 billion) from $747 million (Sh96.8 billion), reflecting increased use of digital financial services.
In Kenya, the new card would challenge M-Pesa GlobalPay, which allows customers to make international online payments through Visa’s network using funds held in their M-Pesa wallets.
Safaricom recently said global payments revenue, which includes international money transfers, virtual cards and Google Play Store payments, grew 22.3 percent to Sh4.8 billion in the year ended March 2026.
The growth came as customers increasingly adopted cross-border transfers and digital commerce services.
Overall M-Pesa revenue increased 13.4 percent to Sh182.7 billion during the year, with consumer payments accounting for the largest share of the growth.
Kenyan consumers are increasingly using mobile wallets for online shopping, subscriptions and other services that traditionally required debit or prepaid cards.
These include music apps such as Spotify and Apple Music, purchasing apps from the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store, as well as computer software from firms like Adobe and Microsoft.
This is driven by a surge in smartphones and mobile money subscriptions. The country’s smartphone penetration stood at 98 percent in June 2026, with 54 million mobile money subscriptions, according to data from the Communications Authority.