Safaricom announces new requirement to all Mpesa users

david nganga

July 10, 2017 4:39 PM

New announcement to all Mpesa users.

Mobile operator Safaricom has announced that its money agents will now use photos to identify those withdrawing or depositing money in a bid to curb fraud.

The telecommunications firm has distributed about 25, 000 pre-programmed smartphones to its mobile money agents to be used in registration of new SIM cards.

The process involves capturing faces of SIM card owners and storing digital copies for retrieval during M-Pesa transactions.

Mpesa agents will be conducting all transactions through the company-issued mobile phones, allowing them to validate the national ID card details presented to them and the person doing so.

The mobile operator added that the special phones in use for registration are linked to the Registrar of Persons’ database, helping verify the data as it is fed into the system.

“Using an application in the phone, the agent keys in the customer’s registration details then takes a photo of the documents and the person registering,” said Stephen Chege, Safaricom’s Corporate Affairs Director.

The new registration format comes as a big win to Mpesa which has been the target of fraudsters who explore loopholes so as to steal money from customers.

Mpesa is currently undergoing a system upgrade with the final of the three-phase upgrade scheduled to take place this Saturday from 10 pm to Sunday 9am.

david nganga