M-PESA News
Airtel Money is Now On its Own
Sourced from Comms MEA Telecoms group Airtel Kenya has announced that it will be splitting its mobile money business – Airtel Money – from its main company. Instead, Airtel Money will now be operating under the name ‘Airtel Money Kenya Limited’. “Following this business separation, Airtel Money Kenya Limited will take over and continue the provision of the Airtel Money Services, in collaboration with the licensed telecommunications network of Airtel Networks Kenya Limited,” reads the announcement from Airtel. Airtel says that customers that continue to use Airtel Money services agree that their personal information and accounts will still be shared between Airtel Money Kenya Limited and Airtel Networks Kenya Limited. “The continued use of the Airtel Money Service shall be deemed as proof o...
Safaricom to Take All M-PESA Services Offline – When, Why & How Long
Image sourced from WeeTracker Safaricom is set to take down all M-PESA services from Saturday 6 November 2021 at 23:59 until Sunday morning 04:00 – effectively for four hours as Kenya’s largest telecom company conducts maintenance on its services for around the 10th time this year. The company says that all M-PESA services, including the purchasing of airtime, will be inaccessible during these 4 hours in the very early morning, a time which Safaricom says, “has been planned to result in the least of inconvenience to our customers.” “We apologize for any inconvenience that may be caused and thank you for your continued support.” Safaricom is asking those whose businesses may be affected by the outage to make necessary arrangements to “cushion” the impact of the services being offline. While...
Kenyans Are Being Registered for Political Parties Without Knowledge or Consent
Image sourced from The World. Kenyan users are reporting on social media that they are being signed up as members of political parties in the country without their knowledge or consent via the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP). Many are finding the developments baffling: According to the Registrar of Political Parties (@ORPPKenya), I am a registered member of ANC. Eeerm, since when? Why? How? @anc_party how did I get on your membership roll and how do I get out? pic.twitter.com/KqcD53OBEH — E. Chenze (@echenze) June 18, 2021 As of yet, there is no clear answer for why this is happening. Theories are running rampant on social media. Some users are claiming that information is being leaked via security breaches in Safaricom’s M-Pesa platform. Though this is a significantly ...
M-PESA is Close to a 99% Market Share in Kenya
Sourced from Tech Weez. As of 31 March 2020, the number of registered mobile money subscriptions in Kenya was 29.1 million. This space is dominated by Safaricom with M-PESA having a 98.8% market share. The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) reports that Airtel Money comes in a far, far second at 1.1%, and third is T-Kash at a 0.05% share. Equitel, which is regarded more as a banking product than a mobile money service was not ranked by the CA. Launched in 2007, M-PESA has become a Kenyan stable, with Tech Weez writing that as of right now the service and its products are symbiotic with the country’s economy so far as to be impossible to run a business without it, or any other mobile money platform. M-PESA’s success has also firmly planted Kenya in the world map, the service is consider...
Central Bank of Kenya Lengthens its COVID-19 Emergency Mobile Money Measures
Sourced from Forbes. The Central Bank of Kenya announced that it will extend the measures placed on mobile money transactions put forth back in March. Charges for mobile money transactions of up to KES1000 ($9,39) and the withdrawal of money between bank accounts and mobile money wallets. These emergency measures were put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown in Kenya. The initial announcement had the measures in place until 1 July 2020, but now the Central Bank is increasing the duration of the measures by 5 months until the end of the year, 31 December 2020. The Central Bank of Kenya says that in line with these measures: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_5fc.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_5fc.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } There will be no charge for mobi...
