Kenya’s robust tourism sector generated approximately KES 452 billion ($3.5 billion) from inbound visitors in 2025. A significant portion of this revenue is transacted in local markets, lodges, and on tours, often relying on cash payments. Tourists frequently encounter challenges with high ATM fees and limited card acceptance when they do not purchase a local SIM card, complicating small purchases.
Craft Silicon, a Kenyan fintech firm known for its ride-hailing product, recently introduced a solution aimed at mitigating this friction. The company successfully convened the tourism ministry, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), and Mastercard for the launch of its new application. The presence of these major institutions underscores the project’s significance, indicating it is more than a simple product launch and touches on private and public interest in digital payment infrastructure for visitors.
The Payment Challenge for Tourists
Tourists traveling internationally generally expect to use their debit or credit cards for both large and small transactions, mirroring their experiences at home. However, in Kenya, many small businesses and traders predominantly favor cash or mobile money payments. This discrepancy leaves visitors with limited options: acquiring a local SIM for mobile money access, enduring high costs for cash withdrawals from ATMs, or navigating complex exchange rates at a foreign exchange bureau. Each of these choices incurs a cost, time, or inconvenience.
During the launch, Craft Silicon’s CEO, Kamal Budhabhatti, explained that their new product, the Tourist app, is designed to eliminate this friction by targeting low-value payments. This includes transactions such as a KES 500 souvenir purchase or an entry fee to a national park—moments where tourists prioritize swift, straightforward payment. By enabling these payments to be handled digitally, the app helps traders increase sales and allows tourists to avoid the hassle of sourcing local currency.
How the Tourist App Functions
The Tourist app is available on both iOS and Android platforms and operates using a single, unified interface for both tourists and merchants. This design means that merchants are not required to install separate applications or learn entirely new payment systems.
The core technology is Near Field Communication (NFC). A merchant with an NFC-enabled smartphone can prompt a tourist to complete a payment by tapping a contactless card or phone wallet. The application effectively transforms the merchant’s standard smartphone into a point of sale terminal. Crucially, tourists do not need a Kenyan SIM card to finalize a transaction, removing a substantial barrier to adoption. Payments routed through the app can be settled directly into mobile money wallets, till numbers, or bank accounts, significantly reducing the reliance on cash. Craft Silicon states that the service connects with major local settlement rails like M-PESA and Airtel Money, allowing a payment from a foreign card to arrive in a merchant’s local wallet balance in near real time.
The company is reportedly collaborating with Kenya’s largest telco to integrate recipient name confirmation before funds are dispatched. This feature, which mimics the standard M-PESA experience, is vital for establishing trust, especially in one-off transactions.
Commercial and Partnership Context
Craft Silicon, the technology developer, has positioned the Tourist app as a locally tailored solution. The company plans to charge a 5% fee on each transaction. This cost is presented as a beneficial trade-off: tourists avoid ATM charges and unfavorable exchange rates, while merchants bypass the cost of purchasing new payment hardware.
The 5% fee is contrasted with alternative payment costs. ATM withdrawals involve per-transaction charges and exchange spreads. Traditional merchant card acceptance often requires monthly fees or terminal acquisition costs. For small traders, the viability of a new payment method hinges on its cost and operational simplicity. A model that deposits card funds directly into a local mobile wallet simplifies the merchant acquiring setup and moves transaction data into systems that are easier to audit. The presence of the KRA at the launch suggests a strong interest in how this shift from cash to traceable digital records can improve visibility over informal sales and address potential compliance gaps. The involvement of KCB as a key payments partner is significant, given the bank’s in-house regional processing capabilities, which allows for local routing and settlement of card flows.
Adoption and Operational Hurdles
Despite the promise, the app faces immediate adoption challenges. First, both the merchant and the tourist require NFC-enabled devices, which may not be a standard feature on many basic smartphones. Second, tourists must download and register on a new application, which may reduce the incentive for short-stay visitors. Third, and most importantly, building trust requires that tourists can verify the recipient’s name before money is sent. The company is actively working with the country’s main telco to implement this essential confirmation feature into the card-to-mobile money transfer flow.
Furthermore, the introduction of a system that converts international card payments into local mobile wallet balances involves adherence to card scheme regulations and anti-money laundering (AML) checks. Any solution that moves funds across various payment rails must satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) and AML requirements for both the card network and the mobile money operator. This regulatory landscape is why the presence of strong local financial partners is crucial, as a bank processing transactions locally can alleviate some cross-border complexities.
The app’s approach competes with existing tap-to-phone products and the proliferation of Quick Response (QR) code solutions globally. The Tourist app’s competitive edge lies in its specific focus on converting foreign card payments into local mobile money with minimal hardware investment. This tactical focus assumes that fitting into established local payment habits is the most effective route to widespread acceptance among merchants.
Several operational questions remain open, including who manages customer support for transaction disputes and how refunds and chargebacks will be successfully processed across card rails into mobile wallets. Additionally, the 5% transaction fee is higher than typical merchant card acceptance rates, raising the question of whether price-conscious visitors will prefer cash or ATMs over the convenience and security offered by the app.
Defining Success
The success of the Tourist app will first be measured by merchant adoption rates in high tourist traffic areas, such as markets, cultural centers, and safari lodges. If the application reduces the reliance on cash and integrates smoothly into merchant workflows, it stands to significantly widen the digital payment footprint.
From a public policy perspective, which explains the tourism ministry’s interest, success will be determined by whether the app facilitates the movement of a greater share of tourist spending into formal, traceable channels. This shift is critical for increasing tax receipts and enabling better data-driven planning within the national tourism sector.
