How to pay for things in Nairobi: M-Pesa, till numbers and when you still need cash
A shop counter in Nairobi displaying a Lipa na M-Pesa till number sign
Nairobi is one of the most cashless cities on earth for locals, yet visitors still need about KSh3,000 in small notes on them, and here is exactly where each payment method wins.
The three payment worlds you will move between
Nairobi runs three parallel payment systems. Mobile money, overwhelmingly M-Pesa, is what residents use for almost everything from a KSh20 bunch of coriander to a KSh200,000 rent payment. Cards work smoothly in malls, supermarkets, fuel stations, mid and upper-range restaurants and hotels. Cash still rules with hawkers, matatus, boda riders, market traders, parking attendants and small kiosks. A visitor who only carries cards will be stuck at a market stall; one who only carries cash will be uncomfortable walking around with it. You need at least two of the three.
The single decision that shapes your trip is whether to set up M-Pesa. If you are here for four days and staying in hotels, skip it and run on cards plus cash. If you are here for a week or more, working, self-catering or planning to use boda bodas and small restaurants, get it on day one. The friction it removes is significant: no change disputes, no counting notes at a till, and the ability to pay a driver, a guide or a market trader instantly from your phone.
Getting a SIM and registering the wallet
Buy a Safaricom line, since M-Pesa is theirs and coverage is best. Bring your passport to a Safaricom shop, of which there are branches at Jomo Kenyatta International arrivals, in Sarit and Westgate in Westlands, at The Junction on Ngong Road and in the CBD. The SIM itself costs around KSh100 and registration is done on the spot with a fingerprint and a photo of your passport. Buy a data bundle at the same time; monthly packages in the region of KSh1,000 to KSh2,000 cover heavy map and messaging use comfortably.
Registration for M-Pesa happens in the same visit. Ask the assistant to complete it rather than assuming the SIM comes with it enabled, and set your PIN yourself, never letting anyone else key it. Then load the wallet with cash: any M-Pesa agent, and there is one every hundred metres, will take your notes and deposit them for free. Depositing costs nothing; withdrawing does. Start with KSh5,000 to KSh10,000 and top up as you go rather than carrying a large balance and a large stack of notes simultaneously.
How a till payment actually works
Two things get confused. A till number, branded Lipa na M-Pesa Buy Goods, is a shop payment: you select Buy Goods and Services, key the till number displayed on the counter sign, enter the amount and your PIN, and a confirmation SMS arrives within seconds. The shopkeeper waits for their own confirmation message, so do not walk off on your own SMS alone. Buy Goods payments cost the customer nothing, which is why so many small restaurants and kiosks prefer them and why you will hear till number said dozens of times a day.
A paybill is different: it is a business account number plus your own account reference, used for utilities, county parking, school fees, insurance and many booking payments. You will be told the paybill and then asked for an account number, which might be your car registration, a room number or an invoice reference. Get both digits right, because reversing a mistaken paybill payment involves a formal process and days of waiting. Read the confirmation SMS before you dismiss it: it names the recipient, and if the name is not the business you expect, stop and query it.
What mobile money costs, and its limits
Paying a till is free to you. Sending money to another person carries a tiered fee, small amounts costing a handful of shillings and larger transfers more. Withdrawing cash from an agent is where the real cost sits: fees are tiered by amount and run from tens of shillings on a small withdrawal up to a few hundred on the largest. The practical lesson is to withdraw in fewer, larger chunks rather than repeatedly pulling out KSh1,000, and to pay by till wherever possible so that the money never becomes cash at all.
Limits are generous for a traveller. There is a cap per single transaction and a daily total in the hundreds of thousands of shillings, comfortably above anything a visitor needs. The failure mode you will actually meet is an agent without float, meaning they have no cash to give you: hakuna float is a normal sentence and you simply walk to the next agent. Agents are open long hours, including Sundays, and cluster around supermarkets, petrol stations and matatu stages. Keep your PIN private and never approve a request you did not initiate.
Cards: where they work and the two traps
Visa and Mastercard are accepted at Naivas, Carrefour and Quickmart supermarkets, all the major malls, fuel stations, pharmacies, hotels, and most restaurants above the cheap-eats level. Contactless is common in supermarket lanes. American Express is patchy enough that you should not rely on it. Chip and PIN is the norm and the terminal will be brought to your table. Below that tier, at a nyama choma joint in Kilimani, a kibanda near the market or a curio stall, cards do not exist and asking wastes everyone's time.
Two traps. First, dynamic currency conversion: if the terminal offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and choose shillings, because the exchange rate applied is poor and the difference on a KSh12,000 dinner is real money. Second, surcharges: some independent restaurants and small hotels add around 3 per cent for card payment and mention it only at the till, so ask before ordering if you care. Tell your bank you are travelling; Kenyan transactions trigger fraud blocks with tedious regularity, and a blocked card at 9pm on a Sunday is a bad evening.
Cash: notes, change and the ATM routine
Notes come in KSh50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000, with coins at KSh1, 5, 10 and 20. The change problem is the one to plan for: a KSh1,000 note before mid-morning defeats a kiosk, a boda rider and most market traders, and you will be sent away to find something smaller. Break large notes at supermarkets and fuel stations, and hoard your KSh50 and KSh100 notes for parking attendants, guards, small tips and the odd matatu fare. Carrying KSh2,000 to KSh3,000 in small denominations covers a normal day.
ATMs are everywhere and reliable. Use ones inside bank branches or mall vestibules rather than street-side machines, and never after dark on an open street. Kenyan banks charge a withdrawal fee in the KSh200 to KSh500 range for foreign cards on top of whatever your own bank charges, and per-transaction ceilings often sit between KSh20,000 and KSh40,000, so take the maximum you are comfortable with in one go. Forex bureaus in Westlands and along the CBD's Muindi Mbingu and Kimathi streets beat both airport counters and hotel front desks on rate.
The payments you cannot dodge, and the ones to plan for
Several official payments now run through eCitizen, the government portal, which accepts M-Pesa and cards: the electronic travel authorisation you need before flying, national park entry fees, and various permits. Do the travel authorisation well before departure rather than at the airport. Park entry for the Nairobi National Park is paid electronically at the gate or in advance, and drivers will expect you to have handled it; ask your operator whether their quoted price includes entry, because it very often does not and the gap runs into thousands of shillings per person.
Budget separately for Nairobi County parking, around KSh200 a day per vehicle in the CBD, paid by paybill and enforced briskly by clampers. Expressway tolls of roughly KSh120 to KSh360 are passed on by taxi drivers in cash or by till. Tips, guard and parking-attendant coins, and market bargaining all want physical notes. A workable daily kit: your card in the hotel safe as backup, one card on you, roughly KSh3,000 in mixed small notes, and a funded M-Pesa balance. That combination has never left anyone stranded in this city.
Before you book
What people ask before booking Nairobi.
Yes. Take your passport to any Safaricom shop, including the branch at Jomo Kenyatta International arrivals, buy a SIM for around KSh100 and ask the assistant to register M-Pesa at the same time. Load it with cash at any agent, which is free; only withdrawals carry a fee.
About KSh2,000 to KSh3,000 in KSh50, 100 and 200 notes. That covers parking attendants, guards, market stalls, boda fares and small tips. Keep larger notes at the hotel. Breaking a KSh1,000 note at a kiosk before mid-morning is genuinely difficult, so split them at a supermarket first.
A till, under Buy Goods and Services, is a shop payment needing only the till number and amount, and costs you nothing. A paybill is a business account requiring a second reference such as a room number or car registration, and is used for utilities, county parking and bookings. Errors on paybills are slow to reverse.
No. Always choose Kenyan shillings when the terminal offers a conversion. The rate applied by dynamic currency conversion is consistently worse than your bank's, and the loss on a KSh12,000 restaurant bill is noticeable. Also check for card surcharges of about 3 per cent, which some independent venues add without warning.
