Safaricom’s ambitious push to consolidate its digital ecosystem under a single umbrella took a major step forward with the launch of My OneApp. Designed to replace a fragmented network of individual applications—including the legacy M-PESA app, Safaricom Home, and specialized services like Ziddi—the super-app was built with a clear promise: to simplify the digital lives of millions of subscribers by bringing everything under one roof.
While the consolidation strategy has successfully streamlined navigation for single-line users, it has also highlighted a significant structural limitation in how Safaricom manages user identities. Currently, My OneApp binds a user's digital experience to a single primary phone number. For a market like Kenya, where multi-SIM usage, dual-SIM smartphones, and separate business-and-personal lines are the norm, this single-profile restriction represents a growing point of friction.
As the super-app matures, users are increasingly asking whether Safaricom should introduce native support for managing multiple phone numbers and M-PESA accounts within a single installation of My OneApp.
The Friction of the Single-Profile Super-App
In its current iteration, My OneApp excels at aggregating services for an individual line. A user can check their airtime balance, purchase data bundles, manage their Safaricom Home Fibre connection, and initiate M-PESA transactions without switching between different platforms. This unified dashboard represents a major UX upgrade over the previous era of disparate applications.
However, the user experience quickly degrades for subscribers who operate more than one Safaricom line. In Kenya, it is incredibly common for individuals to maintain multiple SIM cards. A typical user might have one primary number for personal communication, a secondary line dedicated to mobile data, and a separate registered line for a small business or side hustle.
Under the current My OneApp architecture, managing these separate lines requires users to manually log out of one account and log into another, a process that involves waiting for One-Time PINs (OTPs) and re-authenticating. Alternatively, users must rely on device-level app-cloning features—which are not universally available or secure—or simply relegate their secondary lines to basic USSD codes (*100# or *334#), bypassing the modern app experience entirely. This limitation directly contradicts the "OneApp" philosophy, forcing users back into the very fragmentation the app was designed to solve.
Why Multi-Account Support is Crucial for M-PESA
The pain point is most acutely felt when it comes to M-PESA. Mobile money in Kenya is no longer just a peer-to-peer transfer tool; it is the primary financial ledger for millions of individuals and micro-enterprises.
Many merchants and sole proprietors use separate personal and business-oriented M-PESA numbers to keep their finances distinct. For these users, the ability to quickly toggle between two M-PESA profiles within My OneApp would be a transformative feature. It would allow them to monitor business inflows, pay suppliers via Till or Paybill numbers, and manage personal expenses without the security risks and administrative headaches of constantly switching accounts or carrying multiple physical handsets.
Furthermore, family dynamics in Kenya often dictate that tech-savvy individuals manage utilities, home internet, and airtime purchases for elderly relatives or children. Enabling multi-number management would allow a single administrator to oversee multiple Safaricom profiles securely, driving higher engagement and transaction volumes across Safaricom’s entire suite of digital products.
The Tech and Security Challenge
While the demand for multi-account integration is clear, implementing it within a secure financial application like My OneApp presents unique engineering and regulatory challenges. Safaricom’s services are deeply tied to SIM-card-based authentication. M-PESA’s security model has historically relied on the physical presence of the registered SIM card inside the device to authorize transactions and verify identity.
Allowing a user to access and transact from multiple M-PESA accounts on a single device—where some of the associated SIM cards might not be physically present in that specific phone—requires a robust shift toward cloud-based identity verification. Safaricom would need to implement advanced biometric authentication, strict device-binding protocols, and multi-factor authorization to ensure that adding a secondary number to My OneApp does not open new vectors for mobile money fraud and social engineering attacks, which remain a persistent threat in the region.
Nevertheless, global financial and super-app platforms have already proven that multi-profile management can be done securely. Many modern banking apps and digital wallets allow users to toggle seamlessly between personal and business profiles with biometric checks (fingerprint or facial recognition) acting as the primary gatekeeper.
Moving Toward a True Super-App
If Safaricom wants My OneApp to become the definitive digital gateway for East Africa, it must adapt to the multi-faceted ways Kenyans interact with mobile technology. A true super-app should bend to the workflow of the user, rather than forcing the user to adapt to rigid, single-line legacy systems.
By introducing a seamless profile-switching mechanism, Safaricom would not only improve user satisfaction but also unlock higher transaction frequencies. Users who currently neglect their secondary lines due to the hassle of USSD menus would be brought into the rich, interactive ecosystem of My OneApp, ultimately driving higher average revenue per user (ARPU) across data, voice, and financial services. As the digital landscape becomes more competitive, addressing these everyday usability bottlenecks will be key to maintaining Safaricom's market dominance.