Uber restores Visa payments in Kenya after eight-month pause

Ride-hailing giant Uber has restored Visa card payments for riders in Kenya, eight months after removing the option over rising payment costs. 

The move reverses a decision that had pushed Visa users to rely on M-PESA, cash and other payment methods. It comes as Uber reviews costs across its business, including a global restructuring that will cut about 3,300 jobs.

The Visa option is now available in the Uber app, where riders are prompted to add their card with a message that says, “Pay with Visa! Add your Visa card and enjoy a seamless payment experience on Uber.” Visa cards appear alongside M-PESA, PayPal and Airtel Money in the payment menu.

Uber stopped accepting Visa cards in Kenya in January after reviewing its payment methods in the market. The company said at the time that rising global payment costs had prompted the change. It, however, did not disclose how much it paid to process Visa transactions or why Visa was affected while other card and payment options remained available.

“Payment costs globally are on the rise, which impacts businesses and their consumers,” an Uber spokesperson told TechCabal in January. “We regularly review our payment methods on a market-by-market basis to ensure we’re keeping costs reasonable while balancing any potential impact on consumer experience. We’ve taken this step as a result of this review process.”

The reversal comes as Uber is cutting costs across its wider business. The company said on Wednesday that it would cut about 3,300 corporate jobs, about10% of its workforce, in its largest round of cuts since the Covid-19 pandemic. Uber had about 34,000 employees globally at the end of 2025.

Uber’s chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi told Reuters the restructuring would reduce management layers and simplify team structures. The company also plans to consolidate teams and reduce fully remote roles to about 1% of its workforce.

For Kenyan riders, the latest change restores an option that had been unavailable for most of the year, while Mastercard and local payment methods continued to work on the platform.

The return also comes as Uber reduces its presence in parts of Africa. The company stopped operations in Nigeria and Uganda on September 2 after reviewing its business in the two markets. Uber told the BBC that the decision was limited to those countries and would not affect its operations elsewhere on the continent.

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