The National Treasury, working with the Central Bank of Kenya (“CBK”), has developed the draft National Payment System Bill, 2026 (“Bill”). Once enacted, the Bill will repeal the National Payment System Act, Cap. 491A (“NPS Act”), which has shaped Kenya’s payments landscape since 2011. The Bill seeks to promote market integrity, innovation, competition, financial inclusion and public confidence in payment systems, while protecting consumers and safeguarding financial stability. Public participation on the Bill closed on 09 October 2026. The National Treasury and the CBK are now considering the final inputs received before the Bill is presented to Parliament to undergo the legislative process. Its provisions may therefore still change. Below, we highlight some of the key changes proposed in the Bill.
A wider net
The NPS Act and the National Payment System Regulations, 2014 (“NPS Regulations”) focus largely on authorised payment service providers (“PSPs”) and designated payment systems. The Bill widens the regime’s reach, expressly applying to, among others, payment initiation and account information services, card schemes, payment messaging systems, cross-border payment and money remittance systems, persons processing data on behalf of PSPs, and virtual asset service providers licensed to provide payment services under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025.
The Bill also clarifies and modernises key definitions, including “payment service”, “electronic money”, “interoperability” and “significant shareholder”, and introduces new ones for services such as open finance, payment initiation, account information and merchant acquiring.
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Read the full publication at ENS
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