Agony of sending cash to wrong M-Pesa number ends
Safaricom has introduced Hakikisha, a new feature that will enable customers to verify and confirm the name of the intended recipient before sending money through M-Pesa.
The change will ensure that customers no longer lose money to wrong recipients as a result of keying in the wrong number.
On average, Safaricom receives 12,000 calls in a day from M-Pesa customers seeking transaction reversals.
“While a majority of these are resolved successfully, we appreciate that this is a major inconvenience for our customers,” said Safaricom’s director of financial services, Ms Betty Mwangi.
The pop-up feature will also apply when customers are making payments via Lipa Na M-Pesa (PayBill option).
M-Pesa agents will also benefit from the new function by verifying the identity of customers before depositing money.
The intended recipients’ names will be queried against the official records registered by the customers and PayBill partners.
However, Hakikisha will be suspended if no transaction is completed after five consecutive trials by just dialling 1 (one) to stop the transaction.
Hakikisha has been under pilot phase for the past one month and will be rolled out in phases to cover the entire 21.7 million M-Pesa customers by October 30.
