I keep seeing M-Pesa described as Kenyan, but I am told the Tanzanian one is a different thing. Are they the same network or not?
Same brand, different operators, different countries, different integrations. It matters.
M-Pesa Kenya is Safaricom. M-Pesa Tanzania is Vodacom. They are separate businesses running separate systems. Even the branding differs in practice, which is why you will see a green M-Pesa and a red M-Pesa and they are not a design mistake.
For an integration, treat them as two rails that happen to share a name. A number is not portable between them, and the country decides which one applies.
Tanzania has a second thing worth knowing: Tigo Pesa is now Mixx by Yas. Same network, renamed. If you are matching on operator names from an old list, that rename will silently stop matching.
The practical advice is not to hardcode any of this. Send us the phone number and the country and let the routing resolve the operator. Operator names change, prefixes get reassigned, and networks merge. A hardcoded prefix table is the thing that breaks quietly a year later, usually on a payout, usually at the worst moment.
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