Since Kenya’s 2007 mobile money launch, Nairobi has evolved into a global fintech hub, where many financial pilots have mushroomed, addressing all facets of urban life, from smart water ATMs to informal logistics systems. However, the digital augmentation of currency—now intensified by the rise of stablecoins—raises persistent questions regarding the integrity of money.
This paper examines the techno-politics of licensing in Kenya, exploring how the state rationalizes risks associated with financial technologies operating at the edge of legality and at the contact zone of precarious urban systems. Licenses serve as vital tools for distinguishing legitimate innovation from fraud, addressing both historical failures and emerging threats. Where formal frameworks are absent, regulatory sandboxes provide a controlled, experimental fringe of legality.
Ultimately, these licensing systems are instruments of statecraft. By leveraging concepts of “security” and “integrity,” the state actively facilitates fintech as a speculative project. While often ignored in geographic debates on smart cities, licenses offer a critical window into the rationalities of risk and redistribution beholden to smartness. They reveal how the state doesn’t just regulate but actively participates in the uncertainties of high-tech financialization.
Andrea Pollio is a geographer based at the Polytechnic of Turin and at the African Centre for Cities, in Cape Town.