Safaricom’s Ziidi Trader has expanded the identification documents accepted when opening an account, potentially widening access to Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) shares for investors who do not use a Kenyan national identity card.
The M-PESA-based platform now accepts Kenyan passports, military identification cards and foreign passports alongside the Kenyan national ID, according to information provided by the platform.
The change could make it easier for Kenyan citizens holding passports, members of the Kenya Defence Forces and foreign nationals in Kenya to access mobile-based stock trading.
Ziidi Trader was launched by Safaricom in partnership with the NSE and Kestrel Capital in February 2026 as a way of allowing retail investors to buy and sell NSE-listed shares directly through the M-PESA app. Unlike the traditional brokerage model, users do not have to open an individual Central Depository System (CDS) account or complete conventional broker paperwork.
The platform uses a pooled or omnibus structure, with investors' holdings tracked within the system rather than through individual CDS accounts. The Central Depository and Settlement Corporation (CDSC) lists Ziidi Trader among the available routes for buying and selling NSE shares.
The expansion is significant because Ziidi Trader has quickly become a major channel for retail activity at the Nairobi bourse.
Data reported by Business Daily showed that more than 84,000 small investors bought shares through Ziidi Trader between February and March 2026, while about 511,000 investors had signed up for the platform during the same period.
Earlier NSE trading data showed the platform handling more than 268,000 share purchase orders between February 5 and March 10, accounting for 62.04 per cent of all orders during that period.
The platform's appeal has been its ability to bring stock-market trading into an application already used by millions of Kenyans for everyday financial transactions.
Under the previous onboarding arrangement, Ziidi Trader relied on existing M-PESA Know Your Customer (KYC) information. This allowed eligible users to activate the service without uploading the documentation normally associated with opening a conventional brokerage account.
With the wider range of identification documents, the potential investor pool is no longer limited to people whose M-PESA identity is linked to a Kenyan national ID.
Foreign passport holders represent the most notable expansion because it potentially gives non-Kenyan users who meet the platform's requirements a route into trading NSE-listed companies through M-PESA.
However, the broader document eligibility does not eliminate the normal requirements governing securities trading. Users still have to undergo identity verification and meet the platform's applicable onboarding requirements.
Ziidi Trader also does not guarantee investment returns. Orders are subject to market matching, meaning a buy or sell order is only executed when a corresponding order is available at the relevant price.
The NSE operates from Monday to Friday between 9:30am and 3pm, although Ziidi Trader users can access their portfolios outside trading hours.
The latest expansion strengthens Safaricom's push to turn M-PESA from a mobile-money platform into a broader financial-services gateway, while giving a larger pool of investors a digital route into Kenya's capital markets.