Small E-Money Issuer — Kenya

The Kenya category mapped to e-money issuance.

Same canonical activity as E-Money Issuer but capped scale: core capital KES 1M, per-transaction limit KES 20,000, total e-money liability cap KES 100M (NPS Regulations 2014).

Maintained: this official source is re-checked on a weekly schedule — last checked 2026-08-24 · unchanged since the previous check.

No entries: The CBK PSP Directory (2026-05-15) was read; no entry is identifiable as a Small E-Money Issuer in this edition.

Licence requirements

What it takes to hold this licence, as stated in the cited official instruments. Capital and fees are shown in the currency the statute itself uses.

Requirement	As published	Source	Source date
Minimum capital	KES 1,000,000 (core capital) Verbatim “1,000,000.00”	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31
Local presence / incorporation	Must be a company incorporated in Kenya. Verbatim “is a company incorporated in Kenya.”	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31
Timeline	Same regime as EMI: info request "within thirty days" (Reg 5(3)); certificate "within seven days of receipt of authorisation fees" (Reg 5(6)); no explicit validity term stated. Verbatim “within thirty days … within seven days of receipt of authorisation fees”	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31
Local ownership	No such requirement: No local-shareholding percentage requirement.	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31
Fees	Application KES 5,000; Authorisation KES 100,000 Verbatim “5,000 … 100,000”	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31
Ongoing obligations	Per-transaction cap: Reg 47(b) — issuer "does not issue e-money accounts with an individual transaction limit that exceeds twenty thousand shillings"; aggregate e-money liability cap: Reg 47(c) — "one hundred million shillings"; Trust Fund safeguarding (Reg 25); monthly reporting (Reg 29); AML/CFT (Reg 60); renewal ≥2 months before expiry (Reg 9). Verbatim “does not issue e-money accounts with an individual transaction limit that exceeds twenty thousand shillings … one hundred million shillings”	National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (Legal Notice 109 of 2014)	2022-12-31

Requirements as published in the cited instruments — not legal or compliance advice. Where a value is located but not yet verified, we show that it exists but don't publish the figure. Verify directly with the regulator.

The equivalent in other markets

Categories mapped to the same normalized activity — fintech:EMONEY_ISSUE:

Cross-border rules for Kenya →