One number. Any phone. Free to start.
Prices, money, savings, records and papers, kept in one place and reached by dialling. Works on every handset sold in Kenya. Start this morning, registered or not.
Is Esoko for me?
Search in English or Kiswahili — seremala, fundi, mama mboga, boda, chama, kanisa. Every kind of work is included. The result shows which papers apply to yours.
What Esoko does
Each one works on its own and none of them requires another. Open what you need, leave the rest closed, and add to it whenever you want.
What your goods are selling for at markets near you, checked before you buy or sell. Ask for them by dialling, or switch on a morning SMS if you want one.
Take payment where you trade, send money to a supplier, and have a buyer’s money held until you deliver. Every fee is shown before you confirm.
Weekly contributions, merry-go-round turns, who has paid and who has not, loan votes, and a register your treasurer can print for the meeting.
Every sale, contribution and repayment builds a record of what you actually earn. It belongs to you and nobody else sees it unless you say so.
Registrations, permits and licences from the bodies that issue them — kept together, checked for expiry, printable and verifiable.
Credit, insurance and buyers who will contract you. Offered when your record qualifies, never before, and only if you agree to share it.
Every day
Prices, payments and your group’s money are available as soon as you join, at no charge, with nothing to fill in and nothing to bring.
Prices are collected each morning by market committees and county officers in the counties Esoko works in, and sent out by 5am.
A trader who compares the Kariokor and Gikomba rates before buying pays less for the same stock. A herder who checks the Lodwar rate before travelling knows what to expect on arrival.
Take payment at the stall. Send money to a supplier. When a buyer orders from you, their money sits in escrow where you can see it, and moves to you the day you deliver.
If a payment does not confirm, Esoko says so plainly and tells you not to send it twice. Somebody works on it and you get an SMS.
The treasurer posts contributions once; every member gets a receipt by SMS and can check the balance without asking anyone.
Loan decisions go to a vote that members can cast by dialling, so the ones without smartphones are not left out. Arrears are shown to the office-bearers only.
Papers & certificates
You can use everything above without registering anything. When a buyer, a lender or a county asks you for a paper, these are the ones Esoko can get and keep for you. Esoko issues none of them: each comes from the body with the authority to issue it.
These are the ones most people need. Esoko will hold any certificate you have — NEMA, KEBS, PSV, liquor, health, export, professional body, whatever your work requires. Add it and Esoko tracks its expiry like the rest. Government fees go to the issuing body at its published rate.
Certificates
Every record produces a certificate carrying the issuing body's name, the date it was issued, the date it runs out and a code.
A buyer, a bank clerk or a county officer can confirm that code at esoko.co.ke/verify without an account and without telephoning anyone. Esoko sends an SMS before a certificate expires, and again on the day.
Cheti cha Usajili · Certificate of Registration
Tumaini Women's Group
Community Group · Nairobi County
Verify at esoko.co.ke/verify
4418-TWG-9KQ2
These bodies issue; Esoko holds and proves. Nothing on a certificate is Esoko's word — it is the issuer's, recorded with the date it was given and the date it runs out.
A verifier checks the code and sees the issuer's name, not ours.
A lender sees a summary only after you have granted it, naming the lender and the reason, for a period you set.
You can end that permission at any time by dialling *483*77# and choosing 5. The lender is told; nothing else you hold changes.
A county sees how many enterprises operate in a ward, what they hold and what has lapsed — as counts, not as names, unless the holder has agreed.
A buyer sees only the suppliers who have applied to them.
Counties
Esoko works in all 47 counties. Wherever you are, you can join, hold your record, keep your papers and use your group’s money by dialling.
The counties below are where field officers sit with people in person and where daily market prices are collected so far. Everything else does not depend on the list.
● Field officers working now · unmarked counties are being opened.
How to join
Esoko runs on a basic handset over USSD and on a phone, tablet or computer through the website. Both reach the same record, so you can start on one and continue on the other.
Or open esoko.co.ke. Pick English or Kiswahili first; everything after follows your choice.
Plus where you stand today — registered or not, in a group or not. Your identity card and any papers come later, and only if you decide you want them.
Registrations, group savings and payments are there when you choose to open them.
Joining is free and stays free. Nobody from Esoko will call or text you asking for your PIN, or ask you to pay anything to register. If someone does, it is not us — call 0709 000 000 and tell us.