The entire week the caravan of the leading communication company in Kenya, Safaricom which boasts of over 25.1 million subscribers toured Bungoma county under the shelve of Safaricom Mtaani together with West Media Limited.
They gave an opportunity for the locals to enjoy the services rendered by the company at a subsidized cost by providing a forum for sensitization to the locals over various services offered to them at no cost.
Safaricom Mtaani according to the marketing manager in Bungoma Fred Rege aims at purely educating the masses through entertainment to the locals who are their sole consumers.
For the last two months, the caravan has been touring the nation to provide the basic services that include Safaricom lines at a subsidized cost of 50 shillings unlike in retail shops that one has to part with at least 150 shillings.
The lines come with an airtime of 20 bob, 20 free SMS and 20 MB’s that makes it more economical to whoever acquires the lines during the sensitization tour that has just completed the first phase.
Rege said the Safaricom Mtaani crew is to sensitize the subscribers over the Hakikisha where a subscriber can now confirm whom they are is sending money to.
“We have introduced a new enhancement to M-PESA that will enable one to confirm the name of the intended recipient of funds, before completing an M-PESA transaction and in case one sends the money without intending can reverse the transaction within 20 seconds,a” he said.
Mr. Rege added that the pop-up feature will also apply when customers are making payments to Lipa Na M-PESA (PayBill option) and agent withdrawals.
The M-PESA Agents will also benefit from the service when depositing funds to customer numbers.
Rege insisted that the new enhancement was a result of improved system capability after migration of M-PESA servers to Kenya earlier this year.
Being a sensitization tour the issue of fraudsters cropped up from the subscribers who wanted a way with which they could tame people who send messages claiming to have sent money wrongly and asking for a send back of the money.
The regional activations coordinator Western and Nyanza region for the entire Safaricom Mtaani Maxwell Ihaji stepped in to assure subscribers that now there was an unending solution to fraudsters who will always devise new ways to con people.
Since it is hard for scams to infiltrate the M-PESA system, they opt for non-technical methods, or social engineering, as it is popularly known.
This involves tricking unsuspecting people into breaking normal security procedures and finally manipulating them into among other things, revealing M-PESA PIN or withdrawing from ATMs remotely.
With that in mind, and for the security of your money Ihaji highlighted to the crowd that was present methods of capturing the fraudsters.
He said it was imperative for one to confirm the M-PESA balance when unsure of transactions or dial *234# to get FREE mini-statement.
The M-PESA SMS confirmation messages come from M-PESA while the Fraudsters send M-PESA transaction from actual mobile numbers.
He indicated that it was important to have an MPESA PIN that is not easy for other people to guess and not at any level trust someone to an extent of revealing the PIN to anyone including Safaricom staff.
Maxwell advised that in case of such to report con cases FREE of charge through SMS to 333 then include the telephone number which initiated the fraudulent request.
Throughout the entire tour, Mr. Ihaji expressed gratitude to the subscribers saying they have not in any way experienced any form of resistance from the multitude that turned up to receive them and said they were equally indebted to see the subscribers get the best out of the communications company.
Roselide Nasimiyu, a local vegetable vendor was all smiles as she was able to acquire a modern phone just by redeeming her Bonga points and also expressed her gratitude because she says the capital with which she started her business was a result of MSHWARI loan.
Robert Ondito also commended Safaricom for being able to ensure that their network was fine in even the furthest parts of the country.
He said even as he is in the valleys of Mt. Elgon he isn’t worried because he is able to communicate with the family without any problem.
He added that that had prompted him to purchase a line for his wife as at times communication was at times hindered due to the difference in the lines.
West media crew that was also present did not fail to impress with the company’s presenters’ Sakali Dalmas and Bramuel Bwire giving a go to the local with some fancy dancing styles.
They insisted on the importance of ensuring they safeguard their monies as well as thanking the subscribers who too add up to the main listeners to 94.9 and 104.1 West FM and West TV for being there for the company as it prepares to mark its 10th anniversary.