Technology & security
Security as a design property, not a slogan
The design decisions behind SwitchPesa — identity, authorisation, integrity and privacy.
Principles
The ideas that shape every decision
Identity-first
Wallets are designed to belong to the person, not to a phone number.
Authorisation before value
Nothing moves without explicit, recorded approval.
Integrity by construction
Append-only records that cannot be silently rewritten.
Privacy by design
Sensitive identifiers minimised and kept server-side.
Interoperable connections
Provider-agnostic by design, under agreement.
In practice
Four properties we engineer for
Identity & verification
Identity established deliberately, stored minimally.
- Identity anchored to the person, established deliberately
- Sensitive identifiers kept server-side
- No raw secrets exposed to clients
Authorisation
Nothing moves value without explicit, recorded approval.
- The customer authorises on their own device
- A customer PIN never appears on an agent device
- Approvals are recorded, never assumed
Transaction integrity
Server-owned balances and append-only records.
- Clients cannot write authoritative balances
- Balanced, append-only record design
- No silent mutation of history
Privacy by design
Collect less, protect more, from the first decision.
- Data minimisation by default
- Privacy considered at architecture level
- Clear status disclosure everywhere
We publish certifications and independent audit results as we earn them — not before. See how the platform is designed
Get in touch
Questions about our approach?
We're glad to walk partners and regulators through the design.